Silhouette among Shadows
by emeraldLINX
Summary: Complete: Sonic vanishes, trying to revive Shadow after ARK. Presumed dead he finds himself in another world where Shadow is still alive, as well as other surprises. But due to a newfound chaotic power and Sonic’s disappearance, worlds fall to chaos...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Don't own this... everyone knows that.

(ps. I got rid of the lengthy author's note from before since it's somewhat outdated...) Enjoy.

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Chapter 1: Prologue

The sun glimmered on the sea next to the island. All appeared quiet until a trail of water surged upwards that lead towards the beach. Sonic, who was the sole cause of this surge, heard from Tails that a forest in the heart of the island may contain one of the seven chaos emeralds. The palm trees enveloping the edge of the beach reminded Sonic that he was due for another vacation. "All I need now are sunglasses and a lawn chair," Sonic smirked. He stopped on the sand to gather up some sun, when he sighed, "I have no time for this. I must find that emerald. It's too bad Tails couldn't give me some radar or something. Guess I'll just search this whole island. Probably won't take more than a couple minutes. Then I can sunbathe." He smirked again and sped into the forest.

To his surprise, Sonic could not find any clues. Usually when he was relatively close to an emerald, he could sense it. He ran faster and faster around the jungle but found nothing. No caves. No human inhabitants. Not even animals. Becoming infuriated, Sonic ran straight into a horde of vines, tripped, and fell into a hole. He slowly got to his feet, feeling his throbbing head and kicked the wall of the hole. Suddenly the floor beneath him caved in and Sonic tumbled down a muddy slide. Sonic could easily stop himself and head back up the hole but was having too much fun. "Woooohooooo!" He yelled.

The farther he slid, the slipperier and muddier the path became. Before he knew it, Sonic flew out the hole on the side of a cliff underneath a waterfall and plummeted into a lake. Sinking, Sonic began to panic. Like every hedgehog, he could not swim. Flailing his arms changed nothing. As he felt the bottom of the lake, he could feel a cold tightness clutching his lungs, while the air in them became burning hot. Bubbles shot out his nose, and Sonic stupidly struggled to catch them in an attempt to get more air. He could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness, when he floated across a wire. The lack of air made him too blind to see exactly what it was, but Sonic hastily grabbed it and pulled for dear life. It triggered the wire and pulled him out of the lake.

He flew out of the water, onto the mud and coughed up nearly half a pint of water. Sonic held his throat and turned on his back, stealing as much air as possible. After finally regaining his composure he sat up and tugged the wire. An arrow attached to the wire surfaced and as Sonic felt it with one hand, he wiped the mud off his mouth with the other. He grumbled as he felt his aching side. A small naïve giggle came from behind him. Sonic jumped onto his feet and turned around only to see a little baby sitting behind the chaos emerald. She clapped her hands in amusement at Sonic's muddy face and confused expression.

"What exactly are you little guy?" Sonic pondered as he lifted the emerald and the excited child. "Huh? What's this?" After lifting the baby, he revealed a sheath that she was sitting on. He put the emerald in the same hand as the baby and lifted the sheath, containing a sharp sword. "And how did you get this?" Sonic asked to the baby as she slobbered on the jewel. The baby's huge blue eyes gazed back at Sonic. She looked like a cross between a hedgehog and an echidna. Her skin was creamy white with black ears, legs, arms, eyelids, and black-striped spikes. "You kind of remind me of a panda," Sonic laughed, "So which is it: a hedgehog, a panda, or an echidna?" The creature just mumbled as she continued tasting the juicy jewel.

"Sonic, do you read me?" Tails asked through a short-circuiting radio watch on Sonic's left wrist. "Have you found the emerald, yet?"

He put the sheath under his arm for easy access to the radio and replied, "Yeah I got it."

"Good. Hurry back."

"You're talking to the fastest thing alive; of course I'll hurry back. Relax Tails." Sonic laughed. "Hold on tight," Sonic said to the child and rushed off on the surface of the sea, towards Tails' base. Almost instantaneously Sonic arrived at Tails' side. "Ha. Fast enough for ya?" Tails jumped in surprise.

"Y-yes. Hey, who is that?" Tails pointed to the child. "I've never seen this kind of animal." He took the emerald and the sheath out of Sonic's muddy hands.

"I dunno. She and the blade came with the emerald. So, how many emeralds do we have now? Three?"

"Four," a familiar voice corrected.

"Hey Knuckles!" Sonic smiled, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, Tails told me that he needed the chaos emerald that I have been holding on to. However, I am not really sure why. What _do_ you want with them, Tails? Is Eggman back?" Knuckles questioned as he handed the emerald to Tails. "And what is that in your hands Sonic?"

"What is this: an interrogation?" Tails joked. "Well for starters, that creature is just something that Sonic found an-"

"Don't make it sound like she is a thing," Sonic harassed. "_She_ was watching the emerald for me." Tails looked surprised and a little hurt. "Sorry Tails, I don't want to sound cruel here, but this 'thing' saved my ass from drowning." Tails gazed in disbelief and wonder at the baby.

"Although I want to hear that story, I would rather hear about the emeralds," Knuckles interrupted.

"Oh right," Tails chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and smiling. "If you remember, when we were on the ARK space colony and fought against that 'ultimate life form,' I made a counterfeit chaos emerald. Well, not too long ago, Tikal visited me asking about it because she sensed it and was concerned. When I explained our whole adventure, we began talking about Shadow. Tikal thinks that he may not be dead!" Knuckles and Sonic gasped in shock.

"That's great Tails! …But, what does that have to do with the emeralds?" Knuckles pondered. "Also, how could he have survived?"

"The chaos emeralds contain immense mystical power and are controlled by the master emerald, as you and I know. We also know this power can be used for physical desires, such as materializing items, and also that the emeralds can be used for instant teleportation, 'chaos control.' Well, Tikal told me that when supercharged by all seven emeralds, the control that one has on the emeralds becomes stronger. So a simple desire like teleportation across town might get out of control and teleport the super-powered user across the state. When Sonic and Shadow stopped ARK from falling, they used chaos control. When they did this, Shadow must have accidentally used too much power and teleported into another dimension or time. I think that Sonic didn't disappear as well because he only used minimal energy. Tikal told me that she could somehow distantly sense his presence and requested our help to bring Shadow back. That's why we need the emeralds." Knuckles remained silent rethinking the situation, while Sonic played with the child.

"Do you know how to get him back to this world?"

"Hypothetically, yes. When all seven emeralds are gathered with the master emerald and the right incantation is said, the user can have any wish granted. However, Tikal said that to transport anything from another world would be more complicated. We need some sort of key. She told me this legend that a 'chaos key' could fuse the emeralds and rip through time and space. I think that we need to find this 'key' and then we can bring Shadow back!" Tails smiled. "As you can see, I have put a lot of thought into this." The baby started clapping after the long speech. Sonic chuckled.

"So do you know where to find it?" Sonic asked.

"It's already found you fools! HAHAHAHA!" The trio spun around to find Dr. Eggman in one of his machines. Sonic put the baby on the table with the chaos emeralds and the sword.

"It's about time you reared your ugly face! I have had a hankering to beat your ass all week!" Knuckles yelled.

"Hey, that's my line!" Sonic argued. Sonic charged Eggman as Knuckles and Tails headed for the rear. Three arms shot out of the robot, grabbed all three of them, and began to crush the heroes. The pain was excruciating. Tails could feel his ribs cracking under the pressure. They all screamed in pain, and the baby began to cry. Sonic and Knuckles could not budge their arms under the icy metal.

"As if you could defeat me Sonic," Eggman maliciously smirked as the metal arm holding Sonic was raised to Eggman's face. Sonic spat in his pudgy face and as Eggman wiped it from his eyes, Sonic kicked a lever on the controls, releasing all three of them. Sonic ran to Tails, who was hurt the worst. Knuckles punched Eggman out of the cockpit and onto the earth. "Hehe, you can't defeat me, and you don't know where the key is."

"Well, TALK!" Knuckles grabbed his sweaty shirt and glared into his goggles. Knuckles was so focused on those little pudgy eyes that he did not notice the ray gun in Eggman's hand.

"Knuckles, Look out!" Sonic pushed him out of the way, but was not in time to save himself. The ray made Sonic's insides feel as though they were pulled inside-out. Needles pierced his skin as Sonic yelped in pain. The baby started crying uncontrollably. A bright light ensued and when the light vanished, so did Sonic. All that was left was a smoldering pile of ash.

"S-Sonic?" Tails whispered as he gazed up from the ground. The pain from his ribs was so immense, that all anyone could hear from Tails was a squeak. Knuckles gaped at the smoke.

"You bastard!" Knuckles screamed. His eyes burned with hatred; heat resonated from his face as he violently stole the gun from Eggman. "You bastard! Sonic is gone!"

…………..or is he? Dun dun dunnn!


	2. Where Am I?

Disclaimer: I was so enveloped in the author's note from the first chapter that I forgot to put a disclaimer on it! Tsk, tsk. Anyway, I am going to say this once and only once. Sonic and co. belong to the righteous people at Sega. The only things that belong to me are a few original characters and the "chaos key" from the first chapter. So yeah, blah, blah, blah, I don't own blah, blah and blah, but blah owns blah, blah and blah. I think we all understand the point, yes?

Chapter 2: Where am I?

Sonic lay on the muddy black earth. He lifted his face out of the mud and pushed the grime towards him as he lifted himself onto his feet. His body was sore except for his throbbing head, mud engulfed him, and it was pouring rain. The clouds covered every inch of the sky and made Sonic's surroundings black. Grumbling, Sonic edged forward, out of a humongous crater. It was colder outside the hole and windier as well. "Where in the seven hells am I?" Sonic whispered into the wind. He was in too much pain to run. The hairs on the back of his neck were pricked up from the immense cold, and he held his body in hopes that it would protect him from the bullet raindrops. He shivered as he noticed the piles of wreckage surrounding him. Even with the darkness, Sonic could make out blood on top of glistening white cement and bricks. As he trudged forwards, Sonic came to realize that he was standing in the middle of a battlefield. His heart felt cold as he thought of the hundreds and possibly thousands of people who died here. The bleak weather was not nearly as terrible as Sonic's mood. He continued walking blindly forwards until he saw a collapsed body on the horizon.

As he quickly approached her, raindrops smashed onto his aching head. Sonic sighed in relief when he saw her chest steadily rise up and down. She was alive, but unconscious. Sonic slowly placed her arm over his shoulder so that he could carry her without too much effort, and then continued marching forward. He grew tired of gazing at the gore and grime on the floor. He glanced at the girl and noticed her drenched cargo pants and once-white, now-black tank top. Her boots and gloves were caked with mud, and her face was even dirtier than Sonic's. He placed his left hand around her waist for better leverage and he then felt blood on her side. Her shirt was black from blood, instead of dirt as he previously thought. He was not certain whether it was hers or an enemy's from battle, because someone who lost this amount of blood would be dead long ago.

He must have walked aimlessly for hours. Sonic gradually regained his strength as he left the tattered battlefield, but the rain remained steady. Growing bored of sightseeing, his mind wandered to the previous battle with Eggman. What happened? One minute he is almost vaporized and the next he awakens in the middle of a rainstorm. He hoped that Tails and Knuckles were fine, but worried that they might be here as well. Worrying about his friends made him angry. This awful place was pulling at Sonic's last nerve. He began to become extremely impatient and kicked the ground as he walked. Remembering the wounded girl, he stopped himself and tripped face first into the mud. He cursed and crept to his feet. As he lifted his head and his tired eyes began to focus, a lit house came into view. The light almost blinded him, but Sonic kept walking towards it. He was now determined to get out of this wasteland. The girl next to him mumbled as Sonic quickened his pace towards the house. "She must be coming around," He thought.

The doormat he stood on was thin as paper and as Sonic knocked on the rusted door, a wooden plank fell next to him. He jumped forward and accidentally knocked the unlocked door down. The rotted house reeked of soggy fur. While lifting the rusted door to where it used to be, Sonic inspected the tiny room with a fireplace, a couch, and a door across from him. "Excuse me? Is there anyone here?" Sonic asked, looking at several carved wooden dolls on the fireplace. The fire was burning brightly and Sonic admired the glowing sparks that escaped into the air. Despite the obvious disrepair of the hut, it seemed warm and cozy.

"Yes, yes. I'll be right there," whimpered a tired voice. A young hedgehog appeared at the door with a mixing spoon in one hand and several children tugging at the other. The lines under her eyes made her look far older than she obviously was. Wrapped around her shoulder and waist was a belt with strings of bullets on it. "Oh my! You both are covered in mud from head to toe! Let me get some water and a towel." She stated in a warm manner and then retreated through the door. "Oh, and feel free to sit anywhere," she added. Sonic remained where he was, however, for he refused to dirty up the floor with his caked shoes.

"Hey listen, my... err... friend is hurt badly. Could you help her first?" Sonic asked when he heard someone return to the door. However, it wasn't the hedgehog, but a fox. An orange muscular fox with an eye patch, guns at his sides, and _one_ tail. "Woah, déjà vu! You look very similar to someone I know, but you're much buffer and older."

"Really." He asked with a low, uncaring voice. The children from earlier stalked behind the fox as he approached the unconscious girl on Sonic's side. It made Sonic feel uneasy. It was as though this guy was judging her of something. As the fox tried to rub some gunk off the girl's cheek, the hedgehog from earlier appeared again, but this time with supplies.

"So, what happened to the both of you?" The fox interrogated.

Sonic was about to explain the whole ordeal when the girl hedgehog replied, "Oh they have been through a lot. I don't think we need them to go into detail about how terrible the storm is." She smiled at Sonic. "Here have some food." Sonic smiled back but didn't take it. The hedgehog realized what he was thinking and gave him and the collapsed girl two chairs to sit on. "Don't worry about making this run-down place dirty." Sonic smiled at the female hedgehog's warm face again and carefully placed the wounded girl on one chair and then sat on the chair next to her.

"Thank you." Sonic replied. He took the soup out of her hands and onto his lap. It was sizzling hot and made Sonic's tongue burn. Despite his aching tongue, it filled his body with indescribable warmth. When the girl hedgehog realized that Sonic approved, she took one of the warm towels from her pocket and began to rub the mud off of the unconscious girl. The soup melted Sonic's uneasiness of the fox and hedgehog, so he let the kind woman clean the wounded girl's face.

He closed his eyes and murmured, "Mmm," as he sipped another spoonful. When he lifted his eyes, he noticed that one of the children sitting on the floor was looking deep into Sonic's eyes. He just smiled in return and was about to ask his location to the malicious looking fox when the girl hedgehog yelped.

"What?!" Both Sonic and the fox replied.

"Don't you recognize her?! I didn't get a good look at her before, but even with a fraction of the mud gone, I know that...that is Dice!" The fox jumped back and immediately took out his guns. He spat with disgust as he eyed both of the muddy vigilantes. Sonic, surprised, quickly jumped up and accidentally knocked the soup onto the floor. He raised his hands into the air and embarrassingly smiled.

"Your friend huh?" the fox exclaimed, "What kind of a person are you, anyway?" All the children ran behind the girl hedgehog, who Sonic just realized was pink. The cozy room now began to lose its appeal.

Realizing that the fox was dead serious, Sonic lifted the wounded girl up like he had before, preparing for an escape. "Listen. I don't know what your problem is, but whoever she is, I won't let you just shoot her. I mean she's unconscious!" Sonic proclaimed. However, the fox remained focused with his guns aimed at both of them. The girl hedgehog trembled and bit her lip as she pat one of the children behind her. "What did she do anyway? Stop this! All I want is a towel to wipe all the mud off my face, and a first-aid kit for her. Is that really so much to ask?" The fox did not budge. A burning hatred was emblazoned in his eyes. As the situation became serious, Dice, sensing the danger, began to wake up. She groaned and slowly reached for her head. Both the fox and pink hedgehog stepped back. Dice put more weight on Sonic and then felt her head's trickling blood. At last her aquamarine blue eyes opened. Immediately she realized her location, sprung off of Sonic, and reached for a sword on her back. Sonic gaped when he saw that the sword's sheath was wedged through one of her spikes. The fox shot twice but Dice easily reflected both of them and squatted in a pouncing position. She stopped, as though trying to regain control and then ran outside like lightning. The fox glared at Sonic with pure hatred for bringing this creature into their home and then letting it escape. He was about to make another round of shots at Sonic. Confused, Sonic ran out chasing after the girl.

"Hey what was that all about?" Sonic questioned. Dice did not reply and ran faster. "Oh, you want to race do ya?" He smirked and quickened his pace.

As Sonic approached her, Dice sped up. Water felt like bullets as they hydroplaned across the mud. Dice glanced back and angrily ran faster. Mud ricocheted of her shoes and flew at Sonic. When she realized that Sonic wouldn't let up, she slalomed around nearby rocks and leaped across several elevated pieces of wreckage. However, Dice was more injured then Sonic and thus, all the maneuvers she pulled were relatively easy for Sonic to handle. She slowed down just enough for the two of them to be head to head. "Take this speedy," She cruelly retorted. As they approached a cliff, all the grime peeled off their shoes from the wind and their incredible speed. She ran ahead of Sonic, jumped over the cliff and began running on its wall. Sonic did the same. Of course, Sonic was having a fun time. He had never run vertically in a thunderstorm before. However, after carrying Dice for some time, he knew that she was badly injured and like a good hero was concerned that she would collapse any minute. They whipped around vines and ledges as they sped faster than the falling rain. Sonic easily caught up to Dice and was about to make a comeback when he realized that she was unconscious. He grabbed her waist and ran along the side of the cliff, instead of vertically, and gradually lost speed. Dice quickly woke up, but did nothing. At last they reached the bottom of the cliff.

"I have never found anyone as fast as you!" She stammered as Sonic let her go. "What are you: Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Sonic smirked and was about to reply to that statement when she casually answered her own question. "Of course not; no one is as fast as him, and besides he's dead."

"Excuse me?" Sonic stuttered. "Did you say dead?" Dice began to walk forward, holding her bleeding arm.

"Yeah, so?" Dice replied, and then paused as Sonic caught up to her. "That was," She winced at the sting of her bloody arm, "a long time ago."

"Hey, you are hurt. Do you know of a place near here...without any old stingy maniacs?" Sonic touched her shoulder but she retracted.

"I appreciate the concern; really I do, but I need to be somewhere. Besides those 'maniacs' back there were only defending themselves," She paused, "From me." Sonic gave an awkward stare. She looked back. "You aren't from around here are you?"

**A/N:** Thanks for reading chapter 2! Well, please leave a review.


	3. Destruction

Chapter 3: Destruction

"Yeah, where am I?" Sonic asked. Dice stopped and bent over. Confused, Sonic gazed at his surroundings and realized that he was in the same battlefield that he found Dice in earlier. She cursed and dug her hands into the mud. Sonic asked another question, "What are you doing? Again, where am I?" Silence. Sonic then remarked, "Wow, you have great conversational skills." A little pissed, Sonic strolled around the wreckage. Even with the rain, the blood refused to wash away from the bricks. When Dice finally thrust her hands out, she revealed a tattered rope. Sonic walked back in curiosity, but Dice didn't pay attention. After tugging on it, a wooden board flung off a tiny hole that could only fit one person at a time. She crouched next to it and then scanned the horizon for spies. Sonic then broke the silence, "Um, I kind of have a bad thing about holes. The last one I was in nearly made me drown." Dice raised her eyebrow with skepticism and motioned him to go into the hole. "Ladies first," Sonic joked. Dice hastily jumped down the hole. Sonic followed.

After a quick drop, Sonic fell to the ground. It was pitch black in the hole. Sonic cautiously walked around until Dice flipped several switches, lighting up an underground room. She then closed the entrance as Sonic wandered around the tables of ammunition. "Where am I now?" Sonic questioned.

"What is with all the questions? I am the one who should be questioning you. You're the mysterious one."

"Sure I am," Sonic smirked in an amused fashion. "How about this: I ask a question then you ask a question." Dice remained silent while looking though some cupboards with her good arm. Sonic assumed she agreed and asked again, "Now, where am I?"

After finding several torn towels, she walked towards a leaking pipe overhead. She placed the towels under it until they were relatively damp. "Specifically, you are standing in a rebel underground base, but generally, you are under the ruins of Station Square," She casually replied and then handed one towel to Sonic. "Now, why did you help me earlier?"

"Ruins?!" Sonic exclaimed. Dice said nothing, waiting for the answer to her question, and then began to wipe the mud off her body with another towel. Sonic sat on the table and began to do the same. The cold towel made a scratch on his forehead burn. He rubbed the slime out of his ears with disgust. He wanted to wipe the dirt off quickly, but the quicker he rubbed, the more his scrapes burned. When his muzzle was finally dirt-free, he replied, "Well, I am a good guy. That's what I do: help people." Dice frowned.

"Good people save the weak, the innocent, and other good people." She mocked. "I am none of those."

"Well, when you were bleeding and unconscious on the ground in the rain, you looked pretty innocent and weak to me." Sonic mocked back and then laughed. Dice grimaced at the remark in disgust.

She finished cleaning her face, revealing a sad empty expression, and then dropped the drenched towel on the ground as she rubbed her forehand in thought. Sonic, then, stopped his chuckles to get a good look. Her long eyelashes complimented her black eyelids. The gothic black and white appearance looked appropriate for her expression. The rest of her white face appeared dull and worn. Her eyes were glazed over with sorrow. Sonic then stared at the peculiar alignment of her spikes. It was like a cross between a hedgehog and an echidna, with the coloring of a panda. The thought sounded familiar and Sonic blurt out, "Who or what are you?"

Dice eyed him back. "Are you making fun of my black and white skin?" Sonic smirked and looked away. "My name is Dice, just like real dice, I am black, white, and unpredictable. So watch out for some snake eyes buddy, 'cause your luck might run out." Sonic tried to force a frown but an ear-to-ear smile could not be helped.

"You must have a lot of time on your hands to come up with a line like that!" Sonic laughed. He grabbed his sides as he chuckled uncontrollably. Tears of laughter leaked out of his eyes, and when he wiped them off, more came.

"I am glad you find that so hysterical. Now let's get going, I have somewhere to be." Sonic gradually stopped laughing and stood up. Sonic was done wiping all the mud off his face and prying the dirt off his shoes. While stretching, he yawned.

"I really could use another vacation right now," he thought. All of his energy returned to Sonic's legs and he was ready to leave the moment he arrived here. He, also, had places to be. Sonic yawned, "What about your arm?" Dice held it up, while tying her new boots that she found under the table. They were clean and much more comfortable.

"While you were laughing, I was wrapping it." Dice replied. "Come on, this way is fastest." She flipped a switch, turning on a stream of endless lights and revealing a huge pathway. "Hey hedgehog, it's this way. You have more questions right? Well ask them as I meet up with someone. No matter how hard I try you keep following me, so just get your questions answered and let me be." Sonic smiled and walked with her down the moist path. The hall was clammy but more superior than walking in the thunderstorm.

"I guess I do have a lot of questions." Sonic replied. "Well, I want to know what you meant by Station Square ruins, who were those people earlier, why are you the villain, who are we meeting, and what is going on here?"

"You really aren't from around here." She smiled, looking straight ahead. Her smile quickly vanished. "I never smile." She added in a whisper and stared away from Sonic, so that he couldn't hear her and so she couldn't see his expression. "Anyway, which one do you want me to answer? At the rate we walk, I won't have time to answer all of them."

Sonic paused, debating which would be best to ask. At last he decided what he wanted to know most, "What did you mean by ruins? What has happened to Station Square?" They continued walking down the seemingly endless hallway. Even with the dim light, Dice could see Sonic's bright blue skin. She delayed in answering the question as she looked at the shade of blue.

"You know that blue hide of yours, it reminds me of something, but ...I am not sure what." Nervous, she shook it off immediately. "Anyway, since you are not from around here, I might as well start from the beginning. There is this evil genius, Dr. Robotnik. Of course, everyone calls him Eggman. Many years ago, he overheard from a fox named Tails, that there was another untapped force involving the chaos emeralds. As usual, he wanted to harness it. This power, the chaos blade, was a key that fused the energy of the chaos emeralds and--"

"Yeah I heard this part." Sonic interrupted.

"Ok then. Well, then you know with the power to tear space and time, Eggman could easily take over this world as well as others."

"And this is one of those other worlds?" Sonic impatiently asked, hoping that this was a parallel universe and not his home.

"What? You're not from around here, so I guess you could be from a different world. So, maybe yes?" Dice suspiciously answered. The tone of voice Sonic used made Dice uneasy. When Sonic calmed down, she continued, "Anyway, Eggman came to steal the chaos emeralds and the chaos blade from the fox Tails, an echidna named Knuckles, and another fast hedgehog like you, named Sonic. During the battle, Eggman...shot...Sonic." Dice said slowly, as if reliving it. "He died quickly after. At first Knuckles came after Eggman. He had the upper hand, but when he saw Tails in the corner of his eye, Knuckles retreated. Tails needed extreme medical help. Although the broken ribs would heal, one of his tails was bleeding immensely and infected. It was amputated. Meanwhile, Knuckles only had a couple of skin-deep scars, as well as some guilt over Sonic's death. While Tails was healing and Knuckles searched for some help, Eggman found the remaining chaos emeralds. You see, when all emeralds are put together with the master emerald, the user gets his wish granted. Of course, Eggman wished for world domination. To answer his desire, the master emerald then forced the chaos blade and its wielder to become Eggman's servants."

Reminded of something like a sudden hit on the head, Dice stopped. The word 'serve' seemed to trigger an intangible thought in her mind. She, then, quickly glanced at Sonic to see if he was still paying attention. Next, she briskly walked slightly ahead of him, so that she could place into words what she began to remember. After pondering for several seconds, the words just flew out of her mouth in a monotone voice, "The servers," She began, and then cautiously went on as though she might say something wrong, "... are the seven ...chaos. Chaos is power: power that...is enriched by the heart. The controller ...is the one that unifies ...the chaos-"

"That incantation," Sonic hastily interrupted and ran up to her, "was known by a friend of mine, how do you know it?"

"I can only answer one question at a time!" She nervously replied. "Let me finish just this once, ok? With immense, infinite power at his disposal, Eggman sent the blade's wielder across the universe to conquer lands. One by one, each world fell to the power of the master emerald's chaos blade. Every universe was connected in destruction, death, sorrow, gore, and ruined cities. When at last it was this world's turn, the blade's wielder searched for Sonic's friends, knowing that they would pose the largest threat. Using chaos control, the blade turned to rubble each town one by one in hopes that it would lure out the heroes. However, they did not attack without Sonic's leadership. Instead, they attempted to strengthen their forces. The close friends of Sonic: Amy and Tails were too distraught from Sonic's death to help at first. Knuckles, now the new leader, called upon the aide of Tikal, Princess Sally, Team Chaotix, along with hundreds of others. Everyone came to the rebellion in the name of Sonic's memory. At last, all that remained in Eggman's way was Station Square. Knuckles' main resistance was positioned there, and thus the rebels were forced to finally make a stand. We are actually in one of their bases now. Anyway, every creature, man, woman, and child stood with firearms as the warrior approached. The warrior, then, used the blade to fuse with the emeralds. It made seven copies of the warrior, one for each emerald, so that the warrior could take on Knuckles' forces. At first it appeared that the rebels were winning due to their sheer numbers. However, the real wielder easily found an entrance to the underground base while the blade's copies attacked the rebels. The warrior placed dynamite under certain pipes throughout the tunnels. When the blade's wielder detonated them, thousands of the rebels died as the ground beneath them exploded upwards. With only a fraction of the forces left, the warrior eliminated his copies and faced the leftover rebels. Several of those remaining were Espio, Vector, Amy, Rouge, Tails (all of whom had hid in a tower because they were assigned to the position of long range missiles. Because of their location, they were thus safe from the base's destruction), Knuckles, and a couple others. All of them shot waves of lasers at the warrior but the blade was too powerful for them. The warrior, against the laws of gravity, then flew into the sky. The swordsman activated the blade's ultimate attack, a chaos control that ripped through space. The whole world became unbalanced, and ultimate chaos tore apart at the fabric of time. Obviously, when the warrior called off the attack, the city lay in ruins. The ones known as Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were the only ones of the rebel heroes who escaped. It is actually quite remarkable that they survived. I mean, dodging rips in space and then with pure luck surviving holes in time is basically impossible. It has been a year, three months, and... eleven days since then. Anyway, the two people you encountered earlier were Amy and Tails."

Sonic froze in his tracks; the whole story was too much to swallow. The death of his friends, the destruction of his town, and the casual tone of voice that Dice explained it in made him want to throw up. Also, how could he be dead if he was breathing right in front of her? Did the laser gun he was blasted with send him to a parallel universe where Shadow was alive and Tails was older? It was even a larger shock to think that the fox and hedgehog from earlier were his friends. He had a feeling that they were but had not believed it at the time, or maybe he did not want to. Quickly, he began walking again so that Dice would not suspect anything.

"Shadow? Alive?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, well you interrupted me before I could explain that part earlier. Eggman wanted to test the chaos blade before he made his wish. He ripped through time and space, and found Shadow floating in some void. At first Eggman wanted Shadow to wield the blade, but Shadow refused and left. However, he shouldn't have. He had the perfect opportunity to take Eggman down." Dice closed her eyes and sighed. "With Shadow's refusal, Eggman made his wish, and well you know the rest: the warrior's forced obedience, the destruction of other worlds, the huge battle at Station Square, and the inverted chaos control. The result is none other than the ruins that stand before us." When Dice finally finished her long explanation, there was a long silence between the two of them.

This raised even more questions. Guilt flooded Sonic's mind. All his friends except four were dead, and it was entirely some warrior's fault. Whoever this blade wielder was, Sonic wanted a piece of him. At last Sonic knew what he wanted to ask but hesitated and decided to ask a different one.

"How do you know all of this? I mean, what role did you play throughout this whole dystopia? You said that you are not a good guy, so what does that make you?" Sonic had a feeling about the answer but knew that if he was right, Dice would probably lie.

Dice put her head down, closed her eyes, and continued walking with her hands in her pockets. Sonic waited patiently for a reply. He noticed tears streaming down her face, but didn't say anything. When the salty tears finally stopped, Dice opened her eyes, thinking that Sonic had not seen her, and opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came.

At last she mustered the energy and whispered just loud enough for Sonic to hear, "You ...don't want to know." Then she thought to herself, "Hell, I wish didn't know."

**A/N: **Thanks for reading Chapter 3 of my first story. If there is anything at all you want to comment, compliment, or constructively criticize please do so! Oh also, thanks to the people who reviewed my story already! On a final note, Shadow will appear, but I need to lead up to the scene so please be patient fellow Shadow fans!


	4. Confusion

Chapter 4: Confusion

The two of them continued walking down the hall. Sonic's pity overwhelmed his impatience and anger at Dice's response. Although his suspicions of Dice were strengthened by her actions, Sonic remained silent and decided to stick to this girl before she did something terrible. He looked at the ground and nudged a couple rocks, waiting for a remark to come to him, but all he could think to say was cruel and childish. All the answers he wanted to know earlier vanished from his thoughts as he questioned the humanity of the girl in front of him.

Dice, meanwhile, quickly regained her nonchalant composure and desperately tried to forget her earlier comment. "We should be there shortly," she lied, breaking the cold silence. She was anxious to escape Sonic and sensed the hedgehog's new distaste for her. Her original impression of him was an honest care-free hero who would see the goodness in everyone, even her, and she therefore, stupidly disclosed important information to him. However, she quickly regretted answering his questions, and realized that no one could possibly see any good in _her_.

"And besides, there are no such things as heroes," She convinced herself in thought.

Suddenly, a large thump came from above. The ceiling slowly began to crumble. It began to crack and the small lumps of falling dirt soon became chunks of slate. A large rock split from above several light bulbs and fell, hitting Sonic to the ground. Another almost striked Dice but she quickly dodged it, only to trip and fall next to her questionable alliance. Immediately, she clutched her sword, rolled onto her feet, and crouched on the ground. When Sonic looked up, rubbing his shoulder, he noticed Dice's peculiar eyes stalking every falling dirt clod.

They now burned red.

He was so busy gawking at her agility that he failed to dodge any rocks himself. More cracking noises came from above and another onslaught of stone came. Dice, realizing Sonic's slow reactions, ran at him and sliced the boulder above his head. "What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, "I can't save your butt and mine!" He just blinked and stared deep into her fiery eyes, which Sonic recalled to be blue. Another tremor came from above, much worse than the last. And then another. And another. Dust and mud seeped through the cracks in the ceiling. It was about to collapse.

"Let's get out of here!" Sonic argued. Dice focused on the fissures above, ignoring Sonic. She could hear her heart beat steady while Sonic's pulsated rapidly. He knew the ceiling was collapsing, but Dice was too fixated at the falling rocks at hand to notice. The ruptured ceiling, as one humongous chunk of slate, began to slowly cave in upon them. Sonic then became serious and dodged the boulders falling from the sides of the giant piece, as well as Dice. The lighting above them began short-circuiting and sparked all over the ground, making the muddy puddles of water, which were littering the dirt, electrically charged. Panic raged in Sonic's head. His body became tense and the butterflies in his stomach made his heart flutter. Meanwhile, Dice was calm as stone. Her hard face terrified Sonic more than the flying sparks.

The huge piece of the ceiling finally gave way about to crush Sonic. At the angle it fell, it was impossible to dodge. Dice grabbed his hand and then thrust him to the ground, making him tumble along the floor in time to escape the stone. "D-Dice!" he stammered as he fell out of the rock's way.

Now, a gargantuan opening existed on the hall's roof, allowing Sonic to see into the cloudy sky. The rain from earlier was lighter, and drizzled through the hole in the ceiling. Unlike the pounding from before, it gently brushed over Sonic's face, which was fixated on where Dice used to be.

He just sat on the ground blindly staring at the rock that pounded Dice into the earth a few moments earlier. Sonic was not really sure what to do. None of his strength could possibly lift anything of that size and even so, she was obviously an evil vigilante and had even _admitted_ to being one.

He should leave her.

Then his conscience swiftly and angrily replied, "To die? Just leave her to die?" Growing infuriated with himself for considering such a possibility, Sonic rushed to the boulder. He tenderly felt the smooth slab, searching for any kind of weakness, with none to be found. "Dice!"

No answer.

"Are you there? Dice! ...Answer me!" He fell on his knees with his hands and head pushing on the slate. Again, he failed miserably in protecting someone. The icy stone hurt Sonic's skull, which he was now pounding on the rock.

A blade pierced the bottom of the rock, inches away from Sonic. "Huh?" Sonic, confused, blinked and then forced a glimmer of a smile. He ran over to it, and held it with both hands. They began to bleed at the sharpness of the blade. Despite the sting of the steel, Sonic pushed on it horizontally with all his strength in hopes of cutting the rock. To his surprise, the sword sliced through it like butter. He methodically hacked away at the slate until a large portion split into rubble and crumbled at his feet. The opening revealed Dice, on her stomach, gripping the blade's handle. She looked up with one eye, half open, and made Sonic jump back. "You're alive!" He stated with a mixture of surprise, relief, and disappointment.

"I," she began and tried to stand on her feet. Sonic came to help, but Dice pushed him away. "Don't die that easily." A flicker of an amused smile appeared on his face as she retracted the sword into her sheath.

"I guess it will be safer to travel above ground. I told you holes lead to trouble," Sonic remarked, teasingly shaking his finger. Disregarding his sarcasm, she nodded and leaped with ease out of the crack in the ceiling. Some sludge slipped into the hole from where she landed, almost making her slip back into the fissure. "You are pretty agile for someone who was just crushed by nearly 600 pounds of rock," he smugly added to himself with suspicion. Shaking off his distrust, he wiped the raindrops collecting on his muzzle, as he looked upwards. A dirty gloved hand appeared over the edge to help Sonic up, but he did not take it. Instead he jumped out of the fissure as if proving his agility to her.

The two of them, extremely fatigued, stood perched on a mound of weeds. Beams of light from the sun pierced through the wispy clouds, shining on dozens more hills of dead forestation, which now covered an endless valley. The light rain washed away some grime from the weeds and their exhausted faces. Dice quickly recognized her surroundings and headed east, towards the sun. "Hey, where are we now?" Sonic inquired, as he lifted his feet to catch up to her and made a crunching noise. When he curiously looked down, his shoe revealed a shriveled, colorless rose.

These tedious questions irritated Dice. She began to march in the direction of the sun. "It's already dawn. Damn it! We absolutely must start up again," She stated nervously, ignoring Sonic's repetitive question. "I have to meet up with someone, quickly. Also, whatever caused the ceiling to collapse cannot be far away." Recognizing that something was trailing them, Dice refused to run and give away her intended destination to their stalkers. This problem would greatly increase the time to find her aquaintance.

Sonic ran after her, carefully dodging the valley of withered vines. However, their pace was quickly halted by dozens of robots. A reflection of the dead roses shone on each machine, giving them all a menacing look. The duo was surrounded.

Once again, Dice drew out her sword and her red-eyed alter-ego consumed her. This time, Sonic, knowing this change occurred, made an extreme effort not to glance at her eyes. Every robot surrounding them appeared identical to the Eggman machine Sonic had faced earlier. Reminiscing of the previous battle, he remembered the mechanical arms that shot out of their sides. Before he could warn Dice, she pounced onto one of the remotely controlled cockpits. Half of them surrounded Dice while the others came after Sonic. All of the machines showered a rain of bullets on both of them. Sonic swiftly dodged the bullets and upheavals of dirt they created, leading the robots away from Dice. That way, both of them would have an easier time taking down fewer enemies.

Acknowledging Sonic's speed, the auto-piloted machines shot a laser beam in front of him with precise calculations and accuracy. A surge of mud flew upwards, making Sonic slide uncontrollably into a mound of dead flowers. His feet became entangled in the weeds and he tripped over the rose from earlier, falling face first. He rolled onto his back without time to stand up, escaping a stream of bullets by a hair. Vines and the rose came up in flames. The robots continued their barrage, with Sonic still on the ground. There was not enough time to leap to his feet and he thus continued rolling on his side, heading for cover underneath one of the floating robots. Sparks instantly shot out from the machine as it was bombarded with bullets. Sonic finally stood up and used the falling automaton as a stepping stone to reach a higher position. Metallic arms zipped past Sonic from all sides, but he jumped in time for the arms to become entwined. Then he rushed to the cockpit of each paralyzed robot and ripped out their circuits, shutting them off. They all plunged to the ground.

Sonic turned around to see Dice's progress. To his surprise, dozens more enemies had appeared around Dice while Sonic defeated his. Smoke rose from the annihilated machines up into the air battle that Dice was consumed in. She seemed to fly from robot to robot and then methodically dove her blade into them. Several arms came at her, but an arrow wrapped in wire pierced and bound them together. The wire was attached to a mechanism on Dice's glove that she then used to thrust herself through the air and around the metallic arms. She let go as her trajectory faced upwards. Propelled with heightened speed, she somersaulted so that her head was facing the unprepared robots. She fell back down, with her sword extended, and shot through several robots during her fall. Dice then emerged drenched in oil. She landed on a falling strip of metal and then used it to skydive, spinning towards another cluster of robots. She shook the oil off herself and onto every nearby robot. Scraping her blade across the metal created a spark and then burst the dozens of other machines into flames. Sonic gaped at Dice's incredible, well calculated, and perfectly executed attacks. Despite her excellent tactics, a robot, thought to be already destroyed by Dice, thrust its arm from behind and clutched her oily body, knocking the blade out of her hands.

Recognizing the similar situation from before with Tails, Sonic sped to the fallen blade, but it was wedged between all of the machine wreckage.

Meanwhile, Dice's now blood red eyes glared at the sky as air shot out of her mouth. She tried to gasp for breath but there was no room for her to expand her lungs. Dice, despite the excruciating pain and her involuntary twitching, remained mentally detached. Instead of dreaming of a means to escape, the same phrases revolved around her head. "The servers! ...Seven chaos...C-Chaos: power, enriched by the heart. Servers... serve the controller that unifies the," she blindly thought and coughed out loud with the remaining oxygen in her crushed lungs, "chaos!" Then she yelled in her mind, "I serve the controller; I am chaos; I am power! And I refuse to die here!" Suddenly, she screamed an ear-shattering outburst of pain.

At last, Sonic pulled the suppressed blade out, and the moment it was free, it flung out of his hands into the air. Miraculously hitting the arm clasping Dice, the blade short-circuited the robot, forcing it to release the warrior. Ignoring her pain, she blindly grabbed the sword and slashed away at the soft metal. She and it fell onto a pile of machine corpses. Sonic gawked at the girl perched on top of the smoldering artificial hill. Black smoke filtered through heaps of wreckage as she knelt on her knees, holding her blade into the eye of the machine with both hands. Dice slowly lifted her head as her burning hot chest rapidly rose and fell with her fluttering heart inside, rapidly pulsating air through her body.

Sonic saw deep into her red eyes, the eyes of a murderer.

Her eyes rapidly returned blue as she let go of the sword, collapsing on top of it and then tumbling down the hill. Landing on her back, she remained uncut by her blade, now resting between her right arm and left leg. Sonic cautiously approached her oily body. He paused after each step in fear of her probable demise and possible survival. This paradoxal anxiety consumed him, and when he peered over her, Dice half opened her blue eyes and coughed, "Sorry but, I'll live."

Sonic blinked briefly in surprise and relief, but then his face became hard, "What are you?"

"L-listen," Dice choked out, "Take this to ... to... Sh-sha-dow."

Looking at the item in her hands, Sonic replied, "But it's a rock. And I ...am not leaving you here to die."

"Appearances a-are de-deceiving," She stammered, coughing up blood. "Head east." Dice took a deep breath and let out, "Th-then when you come across, the s-sea, you want to f-ollow...the beach u-until..."

"Until what?"

"You f-find an island w-with a ch-chaos emerald a-alter."

"Angel Island?! Angel Island has fallen?!?" Sonic exclaimed and then noticed Dice's confusion at his knowledge of the island. "And I repeat, I am not leaving you here to die." The white of Dice's eyes were red, surrounding her blue pupils. Her eyes gazed into Sonic's. She grabbed his arm and pulled Sonic close to her.

"I a-already told you. I don't die ...that easily. I ...just n-need t-time to heal. I'll ...b-be there by sunset, but you n-need to give it to him."

"I don't care what you say; I ain't leavin' you! I am the hero here!"

"There are n-no heroes h-here buddy. Sonic is dead."

**A/N:**Thanx for reading this! I hope you enjoyed reading my story so far as much as I have writing it! If you read this comment, which I assume you are, then please review my work. I greatly appreciate it!


	5. A Familiar Face

Chapter 5: A familiar face

"There are no heroes; Sonic is dead," rang through Sonic's skull. The comment would not leave him, despite his futile attempts to focus on the matter at hand. He was moved at the sheer flattery, and distressed at the loss in faith of any possible existing savior. This world truly was a catastrophe with death at every turn, and its remaining inhabitants were stripped of their hope. All that lingered in the air was a feeling of failure. Worse, Sonic's disappearance was the sole cause of this. Now, this girl was about to die thinking that her savior, Sonic, would not come. "Listen Dice, I need to tell you something," Sonic began, but was quickly stopped.

"There is no t-time. Y-you got t-to give this to Sh-sha-shadow!" Dice coughed some more blood. Sonic was dumbfounded by her ignorance. Only a complete idiot in denial would think that someone with wounds of that magnitude could possibly survive. Yet, she brushed it off, fixated on her mission. The wind gently blew in Sonic's face, as he gaped at the rock which Dice was apparently protecting. He hesitated not knowing what to say. How could this piece of dirt possibly be worth dying over? "I know w-what you w-were th-thinking, but I n-never said that I w-was the one who de-destroyed S-station Ssss-square."

"Are you saying you didn't!?" Sonic yelled, grabbing Dice's shoulders, but Dice said nothing and blinked her eyes closed. As the breeze shifted her gory clothes, Sonic saw her shallow raspy breaths for air. When he let her go, his gloves were stained with blood.

"I'll be waiting for you at Angel Island." Sonic declared and snatched the rock from her palm. Looking into the sky, he saw the sun rise steadily upwards. "That way is east," he thought and ran at full speed in that direction, leaving Dice in the dust.

She grudgingly opened her eyes and weakly smiled. "At last that hedgehog left. I hope Shadow won't mind my problem with punctuality," she coughed.

Sonic sped as fast as he could, but the valley of weeds was never ending. The rain finally ceased, revealing a scorched sky. It was a sickening shade of red and orange with splotches of black. Could those dark specks be where the warrior ripped through space? However, that would mean the inverted chaos control, which was unleashed at Station Square, stretched for miles. How could anyone fight against a power which extended for such an immense distance? Although Sonic wanted to slow down and investigate the landscape, he had to hurry to Angel Island. Dust shot up behind him as Sonic ran harder. His muscles were on fire, and he was obviously going mach 4 or 5 but the valley refused to end.

More dead roses. More piles of wreckage. And an endless, ominous sky.

Clutching the rock in his hands, Sonic inspected it with his thumb and forefinger. It was no larger than his palm and was a distinguished red with specs of black, reminding Sonic of the sky. Despite the dry feel of it, the rock did not crumble in his fist. He looked at it carefully and was confused as to why anyone would desire to protect it. "Something is going on here. I must speak to Shadow," Sonic resolved. Nothing would stand in his way from meeting his friend. The ground rose up in smoke as Sonic sped the fastest he possibly could. The sun was setting already.

Dice was unconscious for several hours, until a drop of water fell onto her fatigued eyes. She blinked them half-open to see the tiny clouds high in the heavens. It was becoming dark. "At last," she sputtered. Blood dribbled from her mouth onto her neck. Her body was broken, and internal organ injuries were apparent. Every time Dice inhaled, a surging pain enveloped her chest. Her limp body throbbed in pain. Wishing that her muscles were numb did nothing to stop the insurmountable sting of her limbs. She edged towards the handle of her oily blade, but her fingertips were unable to feel its leather handle due to the immense loss of blood. Without any feeling, she accidentally hit it off her body and onto the ground, out of her reach.

Angered, she desperately patted the dust in search of the blade. A groan of exhaustion overcame her when she was unable to find it and futilely attempted to turn her head to see the sword. However, even if she could manage to turn her skull to the side, her eyes were too tired and bloodshot to see it. "Th-this is bad," she coughed.

Stars sparkled in the sky when Sonic finally reached the rocky beach. He did not bother looking at the sea and ploughed himself along the sand. "Why is this taking so long?" Sonic impatiently thought. Everything was a blur to his eyes and he saw only the immediate rocks in front of him, making the trip dangerous. Sand sprayed upwards into his face, sticking to his eyes. Sonic absolutely had to stop to clean them. His feet polished the sand as he slid to a stop. The rubber on his SOAP-brand shoes began to melt and peeled off. His eyes burned uncontrollably as he rubbed them with his dirty gloves. Sonic groaned and moaned. In the time he spent wasting, Dice could be dying and Shadow might grow impatient and leave Angel Island. His impatience caused his heart to pound and it pushed on his ribs, as if trying to force Sonic into running again. However, he knew that without sight he might become lost and not be able to find the island at all. Tears streamed out of his face, washing away the sand. At last his bloodshot eyes were clear, and Sonic immediately began to sprint again.

While Sonic wasted his precious time at the last stop, his fatigued legs had time to heal. However, after a taste of rest, they demanded more and then ached at Sonic to stop. He, despite his exhausted body, refused to surrender. Sonic was fixated on being reunited with his friend. No ache or pain in the universe would impede him from seeing a familiar face in this hellish dystopia.

The moon became clear in the center of the cloudless starry sky. All the smoke from the annihilated wreckage ceased and the remaining smog rose, wisped away by a cool wind. Dice could feel herself slip towards death. For the first time, an inexpressible feeling of fear consumed her. The sword was out of her reach and the night was halfway through. The pulse of her heart was fading. A sensation of failure swept over her like a blanket. The blood, caked over her body, began to dry, sealing away her ability to move. As Dice knew her death was nigh, the incantation from before whispered in her ears. "The servers serve the controller that unifies the chaos: a chaos of power, enriched by the heart. You serve the controller. You will not die until commanded. Now stand up!" The whisper caressed Dice's doubt and transformed it into raw determination. She shut her eyes, inhaled a deep excruciatingly painful breath, held it, and lunged her arm to where she thought the blade might have fallen. Failure.

Dice tried to pull her limp arm back to try again but the tip of her glove was caught on something. Her eyelids flew open in surprise and suppressed relief. At last the voices vanished. She shifted her weight onto her opposing shoulder, pulling her arm, and then her sword, towards her. The leather of the handle became bloody as Dice's stubby fingers wrapped around it. She pushed all of her remaining energy into her arm and tilted the blade.

A ray of moonlight deflected off of the sword and shone onto Dice chest. A sizzling noise came from her sore body. The dried blood began to evaporate. Her ribs cracked back into place. More unnatural noises ensued. The internal bleeding from before died away and the evaporated blood seeped through Dice's skin, replenishing her. Breathing gradually became easier and Dice could know make long deep breaths. Instead, she trapped the air in her lungs, trying to relieve the pain of her broken bones that were now snapping into place. The searing cracking and snapping noises stopped. Now with sufficient energy, Dice tilted the blade again towards her other arm. The ripped tendons sewed themselves back together and more evaporated blood filled her lifeless arm. She grabbed the sword with her healthy limb and then methodically showered the rest of her body with moonlight.

At last, Dice sat up and then retracted the blade into her sheath. However, even with her fixed body, she was too weak to head towards the island. She stumbled to her feet and headed south, towards a pond not far from her current location. Every step was a chore, for she constantly tripped and tried to rebalance.

A forced chuckle came, "I...thought I wasn't gonna make it back there."

Dawn broke as Sonic quickly approached the island. He stopped at the break between sea and sand, clutching the rock in his fist. "Finally, there it is." A sigh of relief overcame him. Grabbing a plank of rotted wood, he flung it across the sea and pounced on top of it. The extreme force propelled Sonic forward to Angel Island. When the initial movement ended, Sonic acted as a rudder, kicking away at the salty water.

The island lay tilted in the sea. Waves lapped up to the rocky edge of the island. Sonic _finally_ set foot onto the holy ground. After the tedious journey, his impatience released its hold on Sonic. He rushed into the island's heart but halted as he caught a glimpse of its condition. Although it must have been several years since he last saw Angel Island, it was completely rotted away in comparison to Sonic's memory. All the trees were dead and uprooted out of the ground. The earth was pale and dried out. Upheavals of rock littered the cracked earth. The one word Sonic thought to describe the land was 'disfigured.' Despite his earlier obsession to quickly find Shadow, Sonic slowly edged through the dead forest in denial. His heart was frozen in utter disbelief.

He came across ancient ruins on the horizon. The alter was even worse than he remembered. The pillars once holding the chaos emeralds were slanted and twisted. Gray vines crawled across the white stones that once held a water moat. As he eyed the center of it, where the master emerald used to rest, he saw a shady figure crouching under the collapsed roof of the shrine.

"Shadow!" Sonic yelled, running towards the figure. The individual was crouched over with his head at his knees, looking at his lap, and did not respond. "Shadow! I need to speak with you! It's me Soni- ...Knu-knuckles? ...Knuckles!"

Slightly disappointed not to find Shadow, Sonic soon became ecstatic and ran up to his friend. Knuckles' fist was covering his eyes.

"Don't listen to him, Knuckles. That is only your mind playing tricks on you." The huddled echidna rubbed his forehead and gave a long, deep sigh.

"Uhhh, Knuckles? Are you ok?" The echidna sighed again and glanced up, submitting to his imagination.

"S-so-soni-?!" Knuckles stuttered unable to finish the name in disbelief. He fell back as if seeing a ghost. "I-impo-impossi-ble!" His eyes shook violently, and his mouth dropped. The surprise was too much for the little echidna to handle, as he gawked at Sonic's unmistakable face.

The pond glistened a pale blue as Dice drank from it. The water was cold and trickled down her parched throat. The rate at which she slurped it made her body contract from shock. It must have been days since she ate or drank, and the nutrients were hard for her body to accept. She huddled on a slab of stone with her feet dangling in the water. It was icy cold. Her boots and sword lay on a nearby rock.

She took off her bloody tank top, revealing a blue midriff, and dumped it into the water. Blood oozed out of the shirt. Leaning over was difficult for the weak creature, so she slid into the water. Her hands rubbed the grime off of it, peeling the flakes of dried oil and tar. When she pulled the drenched shirt out of the water, it was a revolting shade of pink. In disgust, Dice casually tossed it over her shoulder and then dunked herself underwater.

She swam down far into the pool of water, knowing that no fish lived in it. All sea life was extinct. The iced water peeled away at the oil stuck between the hairs on her quills. Dried black blood from earlier enemies cracked off Dice's limbs. Drifting into the abyss, her thoughts fell on the nameless blue hedgehog. His peculiar personality seemed familiar, like a long lost memory. However, the pieces refused to fall into place. All she remembered from an imaginary childhood was the tedious incantation, and somehow, the hedgehog recognized its words. She did not see the stranger as a new love or a knight out of a fairytale, but as an older brother. Someone, who would protect _anyone_ at _any_ cost from _any_ type of evil... a hero of sorts.

A _hero?_ Under the glistening water, time fell silently still, allowing the thought to ring perpetually. Despite wanting to erase the word from her thoughts, a part of her mind desired the concept. At that moment, she was released from a heavy weight which plagued her since the dawn of her life. _Her hope._

The sense of hope torchered her with thoughts of complete impossibilities. Hope was a carrot dangling in front of a rabbit's nose. The rabbit and the carrot know he will not be able to reach it. So why? Why torcher oneself? Knowing that one cannot have a dream makes it even more desirable and thus more painful when the dream is unfulfilled. Of course, a truly hopefull person actually believes their desires will be recognized. But not Dice. Her faulty hope was more of a reason to fuel her misery than anything else. One could not even call it hope, really. However, at that moment, frozen and hidden from her fears under the water, she no longer needed a pathetic hope; she _knew_ that this blue hedgehog was someone special, she _knew_ he could and would surely rescue what is left from this dystopia... and for that matter, salvage what remains of her soul.

However, the moment she ascended to the surface for air, those thoughts quickly vanished and were permanently forgotten.

When she lifted her head out of the water, all her fur and clothes were clean. She swam back to the rocky shore. Dice ripped the edges of her cargo pants off. The ends were too caked with tar and gore to clean. Her bare black-skinned ankles ached in the moonlight. Not all of her energy returned yet. Dice methodically put her boots back on. Sitting with one leg extended and the other bent upwards, Dice rested her sword across her knee. She grabbed a stone with her right-hand and began scraping the blade. Sparks sprayed up as she tediously sharpened it.

"It's good to see you too," Sonic laughed. He extended his arm to help the fallen echidna up. To Sonic's surprise, Knuckles sprung at him and embraced the blue hedgehog. "Knu-knuckles, you're crushing your buddy." He choked out, but remembered that Sonic was 'dead' and acknowledged Knuckles burst of ecstasy. Sonic patted his friend's shoulder. Several moments passed before Knuckles finally let him go.

"Are you real?" Knuckles stammered.

"Of course I am, silly echidna." Sonic tugged on his own ears as proof. "See?" Knuckles just gazed with a huge smile on his face. He paced around the hedgehog to inspect every hair, recalling Sonic's figure.

"You haven't aged a day." Knuckles placed his fist on Sonic's ear and pulled as a final test of Sonic's authenticity. The hedgehog winced and gave a weak smile. "Where in hell have you been?"

"Well one minute I am fighting Eggman and shot with a laser gun, and the next, I appear in a parallel universe or something."

"Sonic, this is no parallel universe; that was sixteen years ago."

"E-excuse me?" Sonic gaped at yet another unwanted surprise.

"Well, you see..."

"Stop right there. I have already been filled in on the current situation. I saw Station Square. Dice explained it to me." Knuckles, a little amused, said nothing. He could not keep his eyes off the blue hedgehog.

When Knuckles finally accepted that the real Sonic the hedgehog was standing in front of him, he said, "This world has turned for the worst with your disappearance Sonic." Knuckles rubbed his eyes and changed the subject. Growing serious he asked, "You saw Dice? Who else, may I inquire?"

Sonic laughed remembering the hut from earlier. "Well I encountered this extremely buff fox and a pink hedgehog who..."

"So you saw Amy and Tails." Knuckles sighed in disappointment, thinking of his former companions with regret.

"Well, yes." Sonic replied, sensing his friend's misery. "Look there is something I want you to answer though ...about Dice." Sonic shifted his weight back and forth nervously.

"Hmm?"

"Is...is she the one who did this? You know, to Station Square?"

There was an extensive silence. "Well, it's slightly more complicated than that." Knuckles explained without answering the question. "The sword she wields ...is in fact the chaos blade," Knuckles looked at the ground, "but ..."

Sonic grew inpatient with this response, "Is she or is she not the enemy?"

"No," Knuckles declared firmly, "No, she is not the enemy."

Clamping his eyes shot, Sonic slapped himself in the face in frustration. "Then what is she?!"

Knuckles sighed. "I am sorry." Sonic flung open his eyes in confusion.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

The echidna turned away from Sonic, "I 't stop Robotnik. Everyone is dead. It is my fault; I was ...supposed to be the leader, and failed miserably." Sonic gazed in pity. Knuckles must have spent the last year on this island in isolation, kicking himself due to his immense guilt. As he looked at Knuckles, Sonic was surprised that he did not notice Knuckles' body earlier. The echidna was covered in scars from head to toe. A sword created those deep black wounds; Sonic was certain of it.

Ignoring Knuckles' guilt trip, Sonic asked, "And is she responsible?"

"Look Sonic, it is a lot more complicated than that."

"Then explain it to me."

"Dice ...uhh...her sole purpose... the very meaning of her existence and creation for that matter, is to serve the master emerald."

"Like your duty is to protect it?"

"I suppose so, yes. I guess that's why I can relate. If Eggman controls the emerald, he controls Dice. You see, for fifteen years, she has been an empty shell, blindly heeding Eggman's desires. Dice ...can't help it." Sonic sympathetically understood. "She's a..."

"A slave?"

Dice continued meticulously sharpening the blade. The sun was rising higher, creating a shadow over her. Sparks sprayed from the blade, until Dice felt a twinge of emotion. An intangible sensation overcame her. The rock fell out of her hands and rolled away. She rested her head on her knees and quietly began to sob.

**A/N:** Hey everybody! Thanks for reading Chapter 5. You all know the drill; if you have any comments, compliments, suggestions, or constructive criticism please review! (Also, just to prevent any confusion: I decided it would make more sense to find Knuckles at Angel Island instead of Shadow, but I promise the dark hedgehog will show up. Just wait a little longer)

Oh, and for all you readers who saw this story before it was deleted, I added several new parts to this chapter. So, if you were too lazy to read it, you may as well read the new paragraphs. (The part when Dice is in the water.....)


	6. Flashback, pt 1

Chapter 6: Flashback pt. 1

(Station Square; 1 year, 3 months, and 6 days ago)

Note: This means that it is 15 years after the battle with Eggman and Sonic's 'death.' So everyone is way older!

Rogue, a seven year old blue bat, glared through his binoculars at the rising sun on the watchtower. A few birds were flocking east. "That's odd," he squeaked out loud with his nasally little voice. "They are coming from the pyramid base." He snatched the radio at his side and adjusted the frequency. "Roxie, do you read? Over." A silence ensued until a girl, no older than six, answered.

"Yeah bro? What is it?" The broadcast began to crackle, making the conversation difficult. "We aren't supposed to use this line, unless it's an emergency."

"Well, I saw some weird behavior, coming from your direction. Is everything alright?"

"I," she began but paused to see if anyone was nearby, "Noticed it too, but I can't go around making predictions sending everyone into a panic. I think...the warrior is coming. My heart is telling me that the chaos blade is near and danger will follow. Eggman must know that we are the weakest base. Could you tell Knuckles? I tried to explain my feelings to Lt. Manic, but he said not to worry."

"Knuckles isn't listening to anyone either. I am not sure why, but don't worry sis, I won't let anything happen. Maybe I can get some help over there." The radio crackled with no response. "...Sis?"

"Sorry, Cream just passed by. It is getting crowded over here. Roxie, signing off." Rogue clicked the microphone back on the radio and sat down, propped up against the wall. He looked up, seeing Shadow across from him, leaning over the rail. Rogue's huge eyes shook in surprise.

"Shadow? Did you hear all of that?" Shadow glanced over his shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry kid, I agree with you. We need to make a move soon," Shadow gazed down at the city, deep in thought, "Before the chaos blade shows up." Rogue grinned and walked next to him, but was shorter than the railing, and thus could not see over it.

"Then..." the bat twiddled his fingers nervously, "You wouldn't mind running over to the pyramid base would you?" Shadow shrugged without answering. "Is that a yes, or a no?"

"I have nothing better to do. Knuckles is acting like an idiot. He is just moping around not making any decisions, just like everyone else. However, a leader should remain detached. Listen kid, I'll go check up on that sector if you do what I ask." Rogue smiled with his mouth open, not knowing what to say, and then vigorously nodded his head. "You need to speak to Knuckles...and your mom. Rouge has not been acting like herself. Also, you need to get Tails and Amy out of their slumps. I ain't asking you to pull off any miracles, but the least you can do is talk some sense to that echidna. You got me?" Rogue nodded. "Good. I'll contact you through the radio, later." With that, the hedgehog leaped over the rail, falling hundreds of feet, and sped towards the pyramids on the horizon. Meanwhile, Rogue joyfully ran down the stairs, heading into the underground base.

The walls were brightly lit and the hall was teeming with people. The little bat dodged the fast moving feet, and headed for Amy's room. It was closest. The room was covered from wall to wall with pictures and newspaper articles concerning Sonic. Amy was curled up on her bed crying. "Amy?" He asked, peering into the unlit room. Rogue felt awkward. The pink hedgehog never left her mattress, and Tails was the only one who ever visited her. Rogue had never talked to her before, let alone seen her. Amy grudgingly sat up and after seeing the child, tried to wipe off her tears.

"Yes?" Rogue jumped onto her tall mattress and sat beside her. He noticed that she was clutching a blue pillow.

"...err... Shadow was worried about you, and uh, thought you could use some cheering up." Amy smiled at the boy, a little touched. Rogue innocently smiled back at her, not knowing how to comfort her. "What's wrong?" Tears welled up in her eyes.

"I, uh...well," Amy began, "This hedgehog I once knew, meant a lot too me." She grabbed a photo album from underneath the musty sheets and untied a string holding the tattered book together. "You never knew him, but," She flipped several pages until uncovering a photograph. "That is him, the blue one. Over there are Tails, Knuckles, and oh, that's me." She sniffed a little, revealing a warm smile. "I miss him." Rogue blinked at the blue hedgehog, and took the picture in his hands.

"Is that Sonic, the one who mom always talks about?" The mention of his name made Amy wail uncontrollably. She clutched the blue pillow and sighed into it. Rogue guessed that it was. "Um, I am sorry I mentioned it. I better get going now." Amy glanced up.

"No, I'm sorry. He never liked me, but I loved him. I guess ...I am just having troubles getting over his death. He... meant so much too me. Even his name fills me with utter sorrow." Amy could tell that Rogue did not want to listen to any of this conversation. "Why don't you hang with Cheddar and Cheese?"

"Ewww, Cream's six month twins? No thanks, I ain't no babysitter." Amy giggled. "Do you mind, if I keep this picture of Sonic?" Hesitantly, she nodded her head, as more tears came from the mentioning of Sonic's name. Rogue smiled and walked out the door with the photograph in his pocket. "Well, that was a failure. Hmm, Tails is next." He trotted across the hall to Tails' quarters. The room was bare, with Tails no where to be found. Rogue crawled on the fox's mattress to see a hunk of metal on it. The stainless steel, painted in blue, had an insignia of two tails on it. Underneath the metal was a portrait of a blue plane with Tails as a child in the cockpit and Sonic leaning up against it, with a thumbs up. "I never knew Tails could fly a plane," Rogue thought.

An echidna passed by the doorway with a moldy, yellowed piece of paper. "Tikal!" Rogue yelled and chased after her. The woman turned around and smiled when she recognized the bat's charming face.

"Oh hey! How are you doing?" She hastily rolled up the document and kneeled down, eye-level to Rogue. The echidna wore overalls and a green shirt. An ancient necklace dangled over them. Then she inquired, "What are you doing in Tails' room? He doesn't like anyone in there. Of course, he's never there either."

"I am fine. I was looking for Tails; do you know where he is? Also, what is in your hand?" He asked pointing at the manuscript.

"Oh this old thing? It has ancient text on it about the chaos emeralds. We need to know exactly what we are up against. However, I haven't found anything of value yet." She closed her eyes and forced a fake a smile. "You want to know where Tails is... either lifting weights or at the gun course. He trains there obsessively." Rogue could perceive her false cheer and saw through the counterfeit smile. However, Shadow did not mention Tikal, and thus Rogue did not have to cheer her up; only Tails, Knuckles, and his mom were left.

"Thanks a bunch, Teek!" He called out as he ran towards the gun course. Tikal frowned at the nickname and continued walking. His eagerness reminded her of Sonic.

Shots could be heard as they echoed down the hallway. Rogue ran up to a glass door. Tails retracted his guns and walked up to it, as the bat banged on the door endlessly. The moment the door swung open, Rogue ran into the white room with hundreds of targets, all of which were shot. "What do you want?" The bat smiled earnestly and snatched a paint gun.

"Is this how you hold one?" Tails sighed at the remark and walked towards the boy.

"I don't have time for this, Rogue. Why don't you hang out with Espio's or Vector's kids?" A look of disgust glazed over the bat's face.

"But they are babies! Besides, I wanna hang out with you!" Tails raised an eyebrow and massaged his forehead. Rogue figured that it would be best not to mention Shadow. Tails loathed everyone.

The fox said with a deep voice, "You are too young." Rogue grimaced at the word and stared at Tails defiantly. "Listen. When I was a little older than you, I used to fight by a hedgehog's side. However, you see..." Tails felt his eye patch with his bandaged paw. "During this one battle I was hurt really badly. One of my tails was amputated." He winced at the thought. "Then, when I opened my eyes in the hospital, the hedgehog was gone," He clenched his fist, "Forever." Surprised, Rogue took Amy's photograph out of his pocket, and gazed at the joyful companions.

"Here is a picture of Sonic if you want to keep--" Tails punched hard into the wall in frustration to silence Rogue.

"Don't ever, ever say that traitor's name!" He growled, scaring the poor bat. "He was supposed to be my friend, my brother. If he was, then why did he let this happen to me!?" The fox turned away and tears seeped out of his eyes. There was some silence until Tails added, "You know, the pain of my wounds never goes away; it just aches and aches." Obviously, Rogue could not cheer Tails up either. He dropped the paint gun and sneaked out the door. The infuriated fox ignored the bat's visit entirely and continued his training.

"That didn't go so well," Rogue sniffed, still shaken from Tails' version of Sonic. He looked at the photo as he walked to the briefing room. Amy and Tails had genuine smiles on their faces. He quickly shoved it back into his pocket when voices could be heard from inside of the room. Rogue placed his ear against the rusty door.

"They are not ready!"

"But we won't have any time left if we sit around doing nothing! Amy is depressed, Tails has become a war machine, Tikal blindly researches meaningless dribble, Shadow constantly disappears and reappears unexpectedly, and you can't act like the leader you are supposed to be! Pull yourself together!"

"What do you expect me to do? No one except Tails understands the full extent of how to use a gun. Everyone else is just sitting on their asses moping!"

"Like what you are doing now!" The screams grew louder as Rogue listened intently.

"I can't order everyone to blindly charge a warrior with a power that we don't fully understand! They will all die!"

"We are dying day by day, not doing anything while our home is getting annihilated!"

"What about your children, Rouge?! Do you want them to run to their deaths? We are not ready! This evil will kill everything in its path. We cannot ignorantly think that rash acts will save the day anymore." There was an extended silence. Rogue pushed his ear closer into the door.

"I understand. I am sorry for my insubordination, commander," Rouge snickered. Footsteps led to the door. Rogue ducked behind a wooden pillar. His mom briskly walked away, not noticing her son's presence. The boy ran into the room, seeing Knuckles slouched over on a table.

"Um, hey Knux." Rogue whispered. Knuckles smiled at the bat, guessing that he was listening to the earlier conversation.

"Why are you not at your post? Is something wrong?"

"I ...um, think the warrior is going to attack the pyramid base." Knuckles jumped off the table, waiting for Rogue's explanation. "My sister and I both saw weird activity. All the animals are leaving the desert. I know that the warrior is going to attack the base soon. Shadow went there to help Roxie ...in case." Instead of lecturing Rogue like he had to the bat's mother, Knuckles sighed. The boy's ears flopped down, preparing to hear a scolding.

"I am glad you took matters into your own hands," Knuckles replied after some thought. "At least someone around here has their act together." The echidna had his back up against a wall and then slid down to the floor. Rogue sat next to him.

"Well, I never knew Sonic," Rogue thoughtfully replied.

"What?"

"Well before Shadow left, he asked me to talk some sense to you guys. However, I was unable to cheer anyone up. They all miss Sonic too much. Everyone is just... mourning differently." The echidna gaped at the insightful and truthful remark.

"And I am guessing Shadow wanted you to talk to me as well." Knuckles replied. Rogue innocently nodded. "I am just...I can't seem to fill Sonic's shoes. You know, it was my fault."

"Oh everyone thinks that!" Rogue laughed

"No, you don't understand. Sonic pushed me out of the way. I should be dead instead of him. Eggman intended to shoot me, not Sonic. It is in fact my fault." Rogue nudged closer to Knuckles, who was fighting back tears. "What's worse is that afterwards, I retreated with Tails. I... I left the chaos blade, the four chaos emeralds, and the child on the table. I must have been too distraught and forgot. I then lost the master emerald to Eggman. He tricked Shadow into stealing the emerald from me as a means to pay back Eggman for returning Shadow to this world. Then, Eggman made his wish. The reason why this warrior has destroyed so many worlds is my fault. I let Sonic die. I let Eggman get the tools he needed. I accidentally created a monster that will annihilate us all." Rogue said nothing and snuggled next to Knuckles arm, but the echidna did not smile.

"You!" came a voice from behind the doors. Tails and Amy, infuriated, sprinted in. The fox pinned Knuckles to the wall. "You never told me this!"

"You are too filled with hatred," Knuckles choked out. Rogue gasped and hid behind Amy.

"Well have a taste of some!" Tails punched Knuckles to the ground, and pulled out his gun. "You have no right to live!" Amy bit her lip and began to cry.

"Stop this!" She screamed so loud that it echoed down the hall. Tikal, Rouge, Espio, Sonia, and Sally ran into the room to see what the commotion was about.

"Damn you Knuckles! Damn you to hell!" Tails cried out.

**A/N:** Thank you all for reading chapter 6! Now, I am just going to "quickly" explain why I decided to change the personalities like I did. That way, I won't get flamed. Oh, I loathe flames with a passion. Shadow: I tried to match his to the version in Sonic Adventure 2. Since he has eternal youth and I am pretty sure he is immortal, I figured that 15 years wouldn't change much. Amy: To be honest, I hate Amy. She has a one-track mind and is constantly happy. I hate those type of people. I mean, once the one thing that keeps her going (Sonic, duh) is gone, she is just a hollow empty shell. Naturally, she would become depressed. Knuckles: I love Knuckles; he is my favorite character. Now the thing about Knux, is that he has a severe inferiority complex with Sonic. I mean think about it. Poor Knuckles is stuck on Angel Island forever (basically), while Sonic has all the fun and is credited for being the hero. If Knux thought that he was responsible for Sonic's death, then he would obviously have a crippling guilt. Cream and Tikal I will explain later when you see some action unfold. I don't really know Sonia's, Manic's, and Sally's original personalities so I just kind of used them as extras. Lastly, we have Tails. Just like Amy, I don't like Tails. He is an insult to foxes. I mean he has that nasally little voice and urrg, I just don't like kids. Anyway, if Tails is hurt badly at that young of an age, I think he would naturally collect some serious hatred. Stripped of flight, he would probably go nuts and try to impress dead Sonic (hence working out). However, his anger would consume him and Tails would use his dead friend as a scapegoat, even though on the inside he is just a child crying for help.


	7. Flashback, pt 2

Chapter 7: Flashback pt. 2

(Station Square; 1 year, 3 months, and 6 days ago)

Note: That means it is 15 years after Sonic's 'death' so everyone is way older!

Sonia rushed to Amy's side and covered Rogue's eyes. The bat desperately tried to escape Sonia's hands, but her grip was firm. Rouge gasped and ran to Knuckles, who felt his bleeding muzzle. Meanwhile, Sally, Espio, and Charmy pounced on Tails. As the infuriated fox plummeted to the ground, a bullet flew out of Tails' gun and ricocheted all over, echoing throughout the still room. Sally snatched the pistol as Espio and Charmy tried to pin the fox down. "Damn you all! Get off me!" More people filtered into the room after hearing the gunshot.

"Tails, get a hold of yourself," Rouge declared as she helped Knuckles to his feet. His cheek was black and blood dribbled from his lip. "You are out of control." Amy embraced Sonia and cried without end.

Meanwhile, Sally gave a disgusted stare at the fox and spat at his feet. "She is right." Tails shoved Charmy out of the way and stood up. He was resonating with hatred, and tried to smack Espio, who became invisible and punched Tails in the stomach. The fox fell to his knees, gasping for air. Everyone stared cruelly at Tails.

"None of you get it! It's Knuckles' fault. He is responsible for Sonic's death!" He exclaimed. Now, all eyes were on Knuckles. Sonia gasped, as Amy continued crying. Rouge remained indifferent. Sally dropped the gun, clattering to the ground, and Rogue rushed to Knuckles' side. Charmy and Espio gazed in disbelief. Knuckles said nothing, admitting to the accusation. His guilt already destroyed himself from the inside.

When Knuckles did not respond, Rogue hastily said in his defense, "It was an accident!" Rogue stood in front of Knuckles, with his hands out, as if protecting the echidna. "Everyone look at your selves. We are on the verge of battle, and all you people do is point fingers?" The creatures looked at the floor, embarrassed. Tails however stormed out of the room, leaving his gun behind.

(Pyramid Base: one day later)

The red sky transformed into a bloody crimson, as the moon ascended into the clouds. Roxie was waiting at the entrance of the pyramids, anticipating for the help, which Rogue promised. She anxiously paced back and forth. Roxie feared darkness, so she plopped to the ground and restlessly rolled over like a dog, attempting to shake off her impatience and panic. Roxie halted on her stomach when a dark figure could be seen on the horizon. Overjoyed to escape the shadows and return to base with a new ally, she leaped up and ran over. However, halting to a stop, she tripped and slid on the soil. Sand crammed into her pudgy mouth. A creature's shoes were now in Roxie's face. The bat spit out some sand and gazed up. It was an evil black and white demon, with burning red eyes. Roxie shook violently in fear. The warrior slowly drew out her blade and flashed a wicked smile. Sweating bullets, Roxie crawled away, breathing rapidly. Nothing came out when she opened her mouth to scream, so the bat turned and flew into the air. However, her wings were too tiny and Roxie toppled over. A shadow came over her eyes as the fighter cackled with delight and swung her blade at the defenseless bat. Roxie slammed her eyes closed, waiting for the end. A clank noise drew closer, but no blade. When she opened her eyes, Shadow was on top of the intruder.

"GO!" He yelled to Roxie. With no more said, she sprinted to the base, to warn the others.

The two fighters tumbled over each other as they wrestled. Shadow tried to snatch the chaos blade from the monster's hand, but failed. She violently kicked Shadow off and crouched on the ground, ready to pounce. The dark hedgehog as well, prepared for battle. "It isn't fair if you are armed and I am not," Shadow snickered.

The demon smirked and replied, "I serve only one, and he tells me to use the blade, so deal with it." She sprinted towards him, and swung. A wave of dust ensued but no blood. Shadow fell back down from his jump and kicked the warrior to the ground. Laughing, Shadow slowly approached her.

"I am Shadow, the ultimate life form. You think your sorry ass can defeat me?" Shadow stomped his foot on the creature's back. "I can't believe Knuckles is so worked up over y—" was all Shadow could mock as the beast plunged her poisoned blade deep in Shadow's ankle. She twisted it and thrust her sword out. Shadow shrieked from the poison and fell over. He clutched his leg and panted rigorously. The creature crawled to her feet, tilting her head to create a shadow over her eyes. Her teeth glistened through a wicked smile.

"It will only temporarily paralyze you." She spat, "For an ultimate life from, you seem really weak." The grueling grin ceased and the vigilante flew up into the air. Shadow blankly stared, now paralyzed. The colors on the beast's skin became inverted as her blade blazed an eerie blue. Clouds appeared directly above her. Lightning struck the warrior's sword. Needles pierced the fighter, but her mindless body said nothing. The demon felt pain surge through her body, but remained indifferent. She deflected the lightening towards the headquarters. A searing crackling noise approached from the base. The top half of the pyramids cracked and fell off, completely slicing it in half. Determining that her mission was completed, the warrior flew above the opening, realizing that no one was inside. The demon returned to Shadow's side. "Where are they?!" She snarled, lifting Shadow up by the neck.

"Please." Shadow wheezed with sarcasm, "Like I would give you the time of day." The feeling came back to Shadow's arms. He socked her jaw, pummeling her to the ground. Shadow sprinted at her, screaming along the way. The warrior punched through the air, as Shadow leaped into the sky, inches away from her face. He landed behind her and punted the beast with his foot, like a football.

"My business is not with you hedgehog," she huffed, trying to stand on her feet.

"Oh, but it is. I was sent over to warn the base, and it worked perfectly." Shadow laughed. Roxie must have told everyone to escape through the underground passageways, which lead up to the Station Square headquarters. Suddenly he realized with these new forces, Knuckles could easily take on the warrior. She was having enough trouble with Shadow. Against everyone, she would not stand a ghost of a chance. Shadow snickered. "They headed to Station Square. I would like to see you try and stop them!" The blood-eyed beast smiled and ran off in the exact opposite direction of the city.

(Station Square: two days until the battle)

An arctic pack of ice was resting on Knuckles cheek. The poor echidna did not say a word since the fight with Tails. Gossip spread like wild fire, and whenever Knuckles walked in the hallways, he sensed cold stares from his peers. He was pacing around the watchtower, waiting for a response from the pyramid base. Rogue, as well, had a hint of anxiety.

"It's been two days. I don't understand. Roxie would've responded by now!" Rogue sniffed, hovering over the radio. Knuckles sat next to the boy in silence. Suddenly the radio began to crackle. Both of them held their breath, anxious to hear Roxie's voice.

"Kid, you there?" gasped a low voice. The bat and echidna switched glances. Rogue hesitantly took the microphone.

"...Shadow?"

"Impressive, kid. Hey listen, you were right." A smile flickered on the boy's childish face, but it quickly faded when he remembered his prophecy. "The chaos blade has revealed itself. The warrior is a woman. She was one bad ass fighter," Shadow added with several pauses in between; he was panting.

"What about Roxie?" Knuckles asked, as he took the microphone from Rogue.

"Good job, kid. You got Knuckles off his ass!" Rogue chuckled as Knuckles rolled his eyes. "She and everyone else are fine. They all escaped through the catacombs when I stalled for time. Also, they should be arriving in your base soon. Oh, and the pyramids are in ruins."

"How? When will they be arriving?" Knuckles nervously asked, thinking that Tails might speak to them first.

"It's hard to explain. The warrior charged up her blade and swung it at the pyramids. It was so weird. She was possessed by lightning!" Shadow elucidated. He grimaced and stroked his bloody ankle, remembering the previous battle. "Everyone should be there in about an hour."

Rogue stole the microphone back and asked, "What about you?"

"Sorry kid. The warrior shoved her damn sword into my leg. I won't be able to get back to Station Square for at least six days."

"That isn't too big of a deal," Rogue laughed at the short time period, considering the circumstances. There was an awkward silence on the hedgehog's end.

"The warrior is going to attack Station Square," Shadow stated.

"What!?" Both of them yelled through the radio in disbelief that Shadow knew of the warrior's strategy.

"Prepare yourselves. I am going to try and get there as fast as I can. Knuckles, you need to get everyone ready."

"But we aren't ready!" Knuckles screamed to defend his earlier decisions. His lip resumed bleeding as he nervously gnawed it. However, the echidna was not hesitant for a shallow reason anymore. Even if the distraught creatures were prepared, no one would listen to Knuckles. He was blinded by guilt and unable to lead. Without proper formation, everyone would fall in defeat.

"Deal with it." Shadow casually retorted.

"But we need you too! I spoke to everyone you asked, but they are way too depressed!" Rogue desperately argued. Knuckles sighed at the remark, knowing the comment was regarding him. "Do whatever you can! Take a train, dig underground or fly over here! I don't care!"

"Fly? You realize that you are speaking to a hedgehog, right?"

"Wait, I think he is on to something Shadow," Knuckles hastily replied. He closed his eyes and thought of the Tornado. "Tails left his plane at the pyramid base many years ago. It is probably in some disrepair, but still capable of flight. You might make it back if you use that!" Silence.

"And how do I fly a plane?"

"Deal with it," Rogue giggled. Shadow laughed too, but did not click on the microphone to let Knuckles hear it.

"Okay kid. I will be there."

"Promise?" Rogue squeaked.

Shadow rolled his eyes and deeply sighed into the radio. "I'll be there. Shadow, signing off." Rogue waited over the microphone, making sure that the hedgehog turned off the radio. He looked at Knuckles who was kneeling over the railing with arms crossed. The echidna was sweating bullets. Sonic was unable to defeat Eggman who used a pathetic laser gun, and now Shadow expected Knuckles to take on a warrior with infinite power. The rebels refused to stand as one without an acceptable leader, and Tails already revealed to the public Knuckles' treason. Panic and doubt revolved around Knuckles.

Pulling on the echidna's arm, Rogue edged towards the rickety stairs. Hesitantly, Knuckles slogged behind the eager child. The boy, thrilled that Shadow might arrive sooner than expected, skipped down the hall, ahead of the depressed commander and accidentally crashed into someone. He, as well as the stranger, toppled onto the cold ground.

He stroked his throbbing ears and half opened his eyes to see Cream. The bunny giggled with a low, feminine voice as she rose to her feet. She dusted the dirt off her dull army boots, tight jeans, and red vest with chains draped out of its pockets. Cream re-fastened her ears back into a pony tail with a velvet ribbon and re-tied a crossbow on her arm. "You are here already?" Rogue gasped with relief.

"Yeah, Manic found a short cut," She weakly smiled with relief to escape from the endless dark passageways. "Your sister is in the nursery."

"With the babies?" Rogue stuck out his tongue in disgust.

"Why yes. All your friends are there," Cream patted Rogue's head. "We, adults, have been called for a meeting, so you are going to have to baby sit. Sorry, that's the way the cookie crumbles!" Cream laughed, teasingly waving farewell, and sauntered off with Knuckles, who was aware of this meeting as well. Rogue felt left out and angrily marched to the nursery.

When he tramped in, Roxie joyfully embraced him, streaming tears. A little confused, he remained still while the children around them clapped their hands laughing. "Uh, sis? Is there a problem?" Roxie let out an uneasy chuckle, and blushed as she released her sibling.

"Sorry, big brother. I was just so scared. The warrior tried to cut me in half!" Rogue gasped at her sister's plight. However, his surprise instantly switched to annoyance as a baby from behind slobbered on Rogue's wing. It was an orange rabbit. Rogue clenched his fists.

"Damnit Cheddar!" He yelled as he pried the toddler off himself. Cheddar sobbed uncontrollably, calling her friends. Soon all the children swarmed around Roxie and Rogue. Seven bees, an alligator, another bunny, three chameleons, and an echidna all stared at them with humongous, relentless eyes. "Let's get out of here already," Rogue commented with a twinge of nausea after looking at his drenched wing.

The siblings circled the hallways as they explained to each other, the course of events over the past two days. When each others' speeches ceased, they returned to the watchtower. "I wonder when Shadow will get back. I mean it has been another twenty-four hours since he contacted you right?" Roxie asked, gazing into the stars. They twinkled vibrantly reflecting on the ocean front. The sea shimmered brightly. "... a little too brightly," the bat thought. Roxie squinted at it to see a surge of glowing water. "Big brother?" She said with her voice shaking and trailed off.

"What?" Rogue replied with fear, sensing his sister's angst. Roxie pointed towards the sea, shaking viciously with her mouth half open. Rogue clutched his binoculars and cautiously looked through them. "Holy crap! The warrior is on the water, with all seven chaos emeralds!" He shrieked. Roxie fainted at the mention of the emeralds, and the binoculars tumbled out of Rogue's hands, plummeting over the railing and onto the ground.

**A/N:** Thanx for reading Chapter 7! If there is anything you would like to comment on, please do so! Nothing makes me happier than to hear that AOL guy say, "You've got mail!" Hahaha. Anyway, please stay tuned to the upcoming chapters!


	8. Flashback, pt 3

Chapter 8: Flashback pt. 3

(Station Square; six hours until battle)

Note: That means it is 15 years after Sonic's 'death' so keep in mind that everyone is way older!

Rogue shook Roxie until she frightfully woke up. Then he thrust the microphone to his mouth. "Sh-shadow?" He whispered. No answer. He frantically and systematically changed frequencies. Roxie huddled over her brother nervously. "Shadow?" Again, no answer. Rogue continued changing frequencies until Shadow responded.

"Kid, it is difficult enough flying this piece of crap. What is it?" Shadow responded in annoyance. However, Rogue was trembling ferociously and could not hold the speaker button down. "Kid, you there?" The bat handed the radio to his sister, but Roxie was too terrified to verbalize the events. She clutched the microphone with both hands, allowing Rogue to talk.

"Y-yes. The warrior, she is approaching us via ocean with all seven chaos emeralds!"

"WHAT!?" Shadow cried out in a state of shock and shook his fist. Slamming the dials on his plane, Shadow accidentally made the Tornado descend rapidly. Wind and the increased gravity pulled the dark hedgehog halfway out of his cockpit. There was no time to react. Shadow levitated off the plane.

The wind nipped at Shadow's face, flinging the hedgehog around the air. Despite the pounding of his heart, he focused on the plummeting Tornado. He spun downwards and reached for the plane's rusty tail. Edging towards the cockpit, Shadow heard Rogue's frantic voice on the intercom. He hastily pushed forward on the controls and pulled himself into the cockpit. Smoke sputtered out of the exhaust, and the plane was forced into a downward spin. "What the fuck? Damn this plane! I am pushing forward but it won't go up!" As the Tornado continued spiraling, Shadow thrust on his seatbelt to prevent the wind from ejecting him out of the cockpit. The dial which stated elevation dropped drastically and an annoying beeping noise blared in Shadow's ears.

Rogue's eyes shrunk, fearing for his friend's safety. "Shadow, no, no, no! Pull it back! Pull!" The hedgehog quickly did as told, saving the rusted plane. The Tornado leveled out and soared only dozens of feet above the earth. Shadow's chest heaved uncontrollably, as he nervously twitched his eyes open. One arm covered his eyes, while the other lay limp over the cockpit's railing. "Shadow, those controls tilt the rudders on the jet's wings. If you turn them upwards, then the nose of the plane goes down, and vice versa," the bat explained, temporarily forgetting about the chaos blade.

"Thanks," he panted, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Remembering Rogue's advice, Shadow regained direction of the plane by clutching the controls. "Listen, I have at least eight hours before I arrive; I just recently got out the runway. I had so much damn trouble finding the plane in the first place," he explained. Concerned of Rogue's anxiety, he continued, "You must tell the others about the warrior right away! If she is at the ocean, then she will be there shortly! Thanks for the advice, but it is too difficult flying this thing while talking to you. So, don't call me back." Shadow sensed Rogue on the other side, trembling with fear. The dark hedgehog sighed and reassured the children, "I will be there in time to help. Ok?"

Roxie and Rogue sniffed in unison, "Ok. We are signing off. Later!" Shadow smiled and clicked off the radio. The bats, without another word, ran to the briefing room.

Rogue heaved the rusty doorknob as Roxie violently banged the wooden door. However, there was no answer. Roxie plunged to the ground in defeat with her hands shaking constantly.

"Don't worry sis. I want you to head to the nursery and make sure everything is ok. There is a hidden exit there, and probably the first place the warrior would enter from. If there is any activity, run back. I am going to go through an air vent and drop from above, into the room. Understand?" The bat squeaked, attempting to sound brave. Roxie sniffed back tears, nodded her head, and tripped to her feet, deserting her brother in the hallway. Rogue fled in the opposite direction towards the kitchen. It contained the only accessible vent he knew of.

(Inside Briefing Room; three hours until battle)

Hundreds of animals gathered inside. A state of panic filtered in the air, but the creatures remained silent. Sonia, Amy, and Sally were situated in the back, each holding a red laser pen. Everyone sat on the cold, damp floor, with Tikal, Cream, Rouge, Knuckles, and Manic standing in front. Behind them, a poster hung with a humongous layout of Station Square. Once Knuckles already informed everyone of the imminent warrior's presence, he remained quiet.

"Alright everyone," Rouge began in a calm, resolute intonation, "We are all here to discuss the battle at hand. Cream will debrief us on our current strategy. Then, Tikal will explain possible tactics to neutralize the chaos blade." She explained without a sign of anxiety, despite the butterflies in her stomach. When Rouge pointed to Cream, the rabbit signaled Sally to light up her laser. Putting her weight on one leg and resting one gloved hand on her hip, Cream began.

"This plan that Manic and I thought up is quite simple. As you see here in this section of the city," Cream stated as Sally pointed, "Is a terrible location. It is the lowest part of the city, with skyscrapers surrounding it. Also, there are eight entrances from all sides." She pointed methodically to each secret access way. "If we are able to get the warrior into this area, then we will be able to fire from above and attack from all sides." Then, Sonia and Amy handed out pieces of paper to each creature. "Those letters randomly choose who you will be lead by: Knuckles, Rouge, Manic, Sally, Espio, Tails or me. Knuckles' team will be situated ...here... to lure the warrior into position. When commanded, Rouge's, Manic's, Sally's, Espio's, and my troops will enter via the secret entrances. We will surround her, and with nowhere to escape, Tails' long range shooters from above will blast the warrior, wave after wave. I am assuming the monster will bring at least one of the emeralds, so Shadow will attack from behind. He then will snatch the emerald, like Sonic would, and finish her off. Simple, no?" Cream smiled. Knuckles did not explain Shadow's location earlier, and he became nervous rethinking the strategy. Cream flung her head towards Tikal, making her ear-ponytail swerve gently. The echidna then switched places with Cream and commenced her speech.

She smirked at Cream, "Actually, it isn't quite that simple. The chaos blade has many different capabilities that will endanger this tactic. It has the ability to fuse with the chaos emeralds and borrows power from the master emerald. Therefore, this warrior can perform chaos control, materialize items, create force fields, and even neutralize the seven chaos emeralds." The room fell dead silent. "If this occurs, Shadow will be incapable of transforming, let alone gain power." Knuckles sighed with relief, knowing that Shadow was incapable of arriving at the battlefield in time, anyway. "Also, if this female soldier can fuse the emeralds with her sword, then that would mean the emeralds would disappear. She would be the embodiment of the master emerald's mystical power. I need more time to fully understand what this would mean. It has never happened before, and to be frank, I think such a case would prove catastrophic. Our first priority is to get that blade out of her hands! I think Tails should shoot smoke bombs at her and then someone can snatch the blade." Cream nodded in agreement at the adjusted plan.

Rouge continued, "I understand that we are all afraid. However, this plan will only succeed if we are all at our posts and follow instructions! There were rumors concerning Sonic's death, but this is no time to blame Knuckles or anyone else!" She exclaimed, thinking of her son's words. Tails was nowhere to be found, and Rouge, infuriated, desperately searched for his expression in the crowd. "We are on the verge of battle. Get a good night's rest and no more pointing fingers." Manic opened his mouth to say a few words regarding Sonic until Rogue plunged on Amy's teary face. Everyone, startled in astonishment, twisted around to see the blue bat in cobwebs.

"Knuckles, Knuckles!" He coughed, gliding to the front of the room, and tumbled on the ground. "The warrior!" Rogue exclaimed in a shrilly voice, tugging on Knuckles glove. "She has all seven chaos emeralds!" His body was trembling from the icy air vent and reawakened fear. "My sister and I, we saw her on the water front several hours ago. I tried to warn you all by going in through the main doors, but they were locked! She was very casually sauntering over here, taking her time, so ...she should be here in an hour!" The room froze. Manic's face became hard and made his statement.

"You all heard the boy! When you are dismissed, you will have ten minutes to gather supplies, rest, eat... whatever. Then, you will meet with your captains in your designated area. Knuckles is in charge of this entire operation, and will give commands during the battle, so be prepared." Manic stated and then paused. Closing his eyes he continued, "Sonic was my brother, and I am sure he meant as much to all of you as me." Tears streamed down Amy's face. "We will show Eggman what happens if he messes with one of our own!" The crowd cheered. "We will not rest until this evil is defeated! We will not surrender! And, we will fight," Manic raised his fist into the air, "in the name of Sonic's memory until the bitter end!"

"For Sonic!" The crowed bellowed in unison.

"Dismissed!" Knuckles exclaimed. As the creatures filtered out of the room, Rouge lovingly clasped her arms around Rogue, whose heart vibrated rapidly. Only Amy, Tikal, Rogue, and the 'captains' remained. "Where is Tails?" Knuckles asked, struggling to forget his previous argument.

Amy wailed, "He doesn't want to fight by your side anymore, and neither do I!" Whimpering, the pink hedgehog glared into Knuckles' mortified eyes. Suddenly, Tikal slapped Amy's wet face.

Cream, as well as everyone else, gasped. "I thought you abhorred violence," Cream pondered, despite her excitement at Tikal's decision.

Disregarding Cream, Tikal retorted, "How dare you, Amy. We all miss Sonic, but your depression does not give you the right. Knuckles is trying his best to mend his mistakes, and move forward. Well, what have you done? I'll tell you. You, Amy, hibernated in a room for ten years, weeping over someone who didn't even like you back! You have never fought by Knuckles' side in the first place, so don't dare say that you will stop if you never began! Shame on you, Amy. Shame on you!" Tikal yelled with fire emblazoned in her eyes. Cream smiled at the pink hedgehog's needed reality check. Amy silently gazed at the floor, rethinking Tikal's outburst. The tears finally stopped.

"I will find Tails and tell him about his position. Excuse me." With that, Amy left the room.

**A/N:** Thank you for reading chapter 9! Oh, and if you want to comment...you know the drill. Thanks to those of you who already reviewed

Now I should explain Tikal's and Cream's personalities, right? I know that Tikal is the peaceful type, which is usually something I don't like. Though, for some reason I like her. Honestly, I can't say why...but I thought that since this my fiction, I would change Tikal's personality into a more... battle-ready yet compassionate type. Tikal never really knew Sonic except for those flashbacks in Sonic Adventure...so I wouldn't think she would be extremely upset by his death...she would still be sad, but not as much as Tails or Amy. Oh and I felt Amy literally needed a slap in the face so I thought Tikal would be the perfect echidna to do it, since she is kind of my favorite of all the women. Cream: Like I have said many times before, I don't like kids. So, since Cream would be technically twenty-one years old in this scene... I figured she would be relatively mature, but have a rebellious, youthful attitude. Also, Cream never really met Sonic either (unless you include the TV show Sonic X... but I'm not). Cream would be upset but, just like Tikal, not as much. Also, because she was six at the time, that means she grew up in this hellish world, right? So, don't you guys think she would become more... military-like? Also, I got rid of her girly dress and added combat boots and a pony tail because I think that is cooler. Eh, I kind of like the new personality I gave her: a teaser, an independent, plus a little sugar and spice... You guys get what I mean right?

Wow, this rant I just did is kinda long, isn't it? Sorry about that!


	9. Flashback, pt 4

Chapter 9: Flashback, pt. 4

(Nursery; ten minutes until battle)

Reminder: That means it is 15 years after Sonic's 'death' so keep in mind that everyone is way older!

"I can't believe I am stuck here with a bunch of babies!" Rogue exclaimed, pacing around Roxie. A smile flickered on the bat's blue face. "We could escape through the secret passageway!" A wave of concern swept over Roxie's complexion. "Besides, these babies are in danger underground anyway. We'll transport them to emerald coast," Rogue argued. Before Roxie could protest, her brother crawled up a ladder and pushed off a plank of wood covering the passage. Then he grabbed half of the children and sprung out of the hole. Roxie followed with the other babies.

Clouds gathered in the heavens as the group headed for the beach. The daylight quickly vanished, and a flood of icy wind overwhelmed Rogue. He shivered and glanced at the base, to see a shadowy figure jump into the hole. Handing an alligator to Roxie, he whispered, "I forgot to close the entrance. Stay here, ok?" His sister opened her mouth to respond but he shoved his hand over it to silence her. "Ok?" Roxie silently nodded.

Rogue plopped into the hole. His heart fluttered and stomach was tied in a knot. He edged to the door, and saw the warrior walk down the hall. Softly treading behind her, Rogue held his breath. However, the less air he had, the more his heart pulsated at his ribs. A hand patted the bat's shoulder. He instantly jumped out of his shoes, with the hairs on his neck sprung up. Roxie's finger gently pressed against her brother's lips. She held up a photograph and silently mouthed, "You dropped this." In fear of the nearby stranger, Rogue fell silent, but fury resonated off his face, aimed at his innocent sister.

The warrior disappeared and returned, walking in the bats' direction. Rogue grabbed his sister's mouth and ducked behind a wooden pillar. Sweat dripped onto the hand which covered Roxie's muzzle. She was embraced by her brother to prevent her from screaming. However, Roxie could feel Rogue's chest intensely shudder. Both of them were terrified. Roxie slammed her eyes closed and flung the photo over them as a precaution and an innocent, yet ignorant cover.

A smirk came from the taciturn warrior. She drew out her sword and approached the blue bats. Rogue's eyes shrunk in horror, and he squeezed his sister. The chaos blade stopped in mid-flight, as its wielder gawked at the photograph in Roxie's hand. Then, the warrior gazed at the bat's blue fur, retracting her sword. She blinked repeatedly, revealing blue eyes but then instantly transformed into a bloody red.

Hard breathing noises came as she grimaced with her hands on her aching skull. The warrior gained control, flung a small tin box at Rogue's feet, and retreated. Stunned, Rogue released his sister and hoisted the container with blinking red numbers. It was a timer. Roxie nervously opened her eyes as Rogue dropped the clock and ran into a room nearby. Confused, she followed her older brother.

"What is wrong, big brothe--" She stopped, staring at a hunk of dynamite attached to the ceiling. There was a trail of bombs leading down another corridor "It's huge!" She exclaimed. In anxiety and knowledge of the dangerous weapon, Rogue seized his sister's arm and ran outside with the clock. Emblazoned in red were the blinking numbers: 13:52, then 13:51, and it continued decreasing.

"We only have fourteen minutes!" Rogue panicked.

Once safely far away, with the toddlers nearby, the bat squeaked, "We must get to Knuckles. Take the children to emerald coast! I will catch up quickly."

"But you're only seven! We are only childr--"

"Don't say it!" Rogue screamed. In terror, his sister ran off struggling to carry all the children. When he was certain she was far enough away, he sprinted to the battlefield. Glancing at the timer, he saw the numbers blinking rapidly. Only five minutes left. All of his fear melted away, racing against time. He had to warn the others.

(At the battlefield)

Cream's strategy performed without flaw until the warrior was surrounded. A gleaming smirk radiated off her face. She swung and threw her blade into the air, as the seven chaos emeralds revolved around her. Laughing, the warrior cocked her head back and closed her eyes. The chaos blade, now glowing blood red, returned to her palm. The emeralds soared faster, scorching with a bright glow. She flung her eyes open, which were pouring a red radiance of light. A multi-colored aura enveloped her, as she spilt into seven different creatures. However, only one clutched the chaos blade.

"I don't understand," Knuckles proclaimed through a radio watch. "Why are there seven warriors?!" However, no one responded; they were all stricken in anxiety. A low chuckle came from each creature, but it quickly transformed into a deafening cackle. "Fire!" Knuckles commanded. A wave of bullets zipped at the warriors. The creatures soared into the skies. Each warrior shot laser beams out of their glowing hands, forcing the armies into a corner. An evil screech of laughter echoed among the towers.

Suddenly, fire blew up from under the soldiers' feet. No one had time to panic, as the earth chucked Knuckles' forces into the air. Instantaneously, they plummeted thousands of feet at extreme speed. Knuckles, Cream, and Charmy attempted to glide to safety, but the shockwave knocked them to the ground. However, every one else fell to their deaths. The chaos blade reverted the warriors back into a single creature. She strolled to Knuckle's side, saying nothing.

The blade dropped from her hands, as the warrior clenched her head. She fell to her knees beside Knuckles, whelping in pain. The echidna glared with hatred at the creature, who was crying soft tears. He gasped, looking at the blue-eyed warrior. She locked glances with him. A mutual feeling of sorrow was communicated between them. The warrior recognized Knuckles and vice versa. "What is your name?" Knuckles choked out. The warrior tried to respond but collapsed on the earth, clutching her sides. She snatched the blade into her hands and slowly rose into the air.

With burning crimson eyes, she laughed, "I am Dice. Like real dice, I am black, white, and unpredictable. It's too bad you glanced at my snake eyes, 'cause your luck has run out!"

Rogue sprinted to the battlefield to find that he was too late. His heart skipped a beat, as the smoke cleared. A series of craters littered the landscape. Tears gushed onto the soil. The bat fell to his knees in disbelief and guilt. He failed Shadow, his mother, Knuckles... everyone. If he had not left the base in the first place, the warrior would have never found the entrance. His sister and everyone else were right; he was only a pathetic child.

He looked up and saw his sister at the corner of his eye. She was chasing after Cheddar who was separated from the group. The boy tried to force his thoughts out of his mind. Rogue ran to Roxie, but halted when he saw green lightning flooding the air.

A figure floated into the skies. Dice extended her sword into the heavens, with the chaos emeralds swirling around her. The green aura encompassing her grew larger. Bricks crumbled off skyscrapers and levitated upwards. "The servers are the seven chaos of power," she whispered, and then slowly raised her voice as she continued, "Power that is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos. Now controller: tear this world to pieces!" Dice screamed. A light poured out of the chaos blade and absorbed into the thunderclouds. Lightning resonated out of the chaos emeralds and striked nearby buildings. Dice slashed into the air, and created dark portals throughout the shattered skies, which were cracking apart with an eerie light.

At first, the bat was in awe of the fireworks. However, butterflies in his stomach shouted at him to rescue his sister. Pulling himself in Roxie's direction, he saw a hint of tears and petrified eyes.

"Roxie!" Rogue called out as he desperately sprinted towards his horrified sister. The earth underneath him began to viciously crack and split apart. Mud squirted out of the fissures. Black vortexes heaved the split earth upwards. The landscape swirled around Rogue, who was repeatedly tripping over floating mounds of rock.

He constantly fell on his face, and then sprinted to his feet, almost stumbling again. Despite his frantic leaps forward, the horrendous atmosphere, enveloping the shattered city, prevented Rogue's reunification with his sister. His body did not progress, while his heart pounded in his throat. Though he could see his legs flail back and forth, Rogue felt frozen in place. Adrenaline pulsated through his veins. His skin grew cold while his insides burned in panic.

"Roxie!" He hysterically yelled again, feeling the weakness of his pathetic body. Fear consumed him when he realized he could not possibly reach her in time. Drops of tears levitated out of Rogue's eyes and high into the crimson heavens. He felt like a hamster, running on a never-ending treadmill without moving forward. The edifices above him ripped apart and crashed into the moving boulders that were once the ground. A shockwave blasted behind him and propelled him into the devastating earth. Pain surged through his legs. He glanced up to see his sister, violently embracing Cheddar. Rogue reached out his hand.

Suddenly, Dice twirled around violently and sliced into the air. The terrain disappeared. Rogue, Roxie, and Cheddar found themselves hovering in utter darkness. An abyss, which spread in all directions for eternity. The bat's heart stopped in the time-hole, but could still see his sister's frozen anguish. Almost instantaneously, the scenery reappeared, but three minutes in the future. Station Square flashed once, and then Rogue found himself, yet again, in the dark. The process continued. Each time, the ground position changed drastically, and the towers progressed in their disintegration. Each time, he saw his sister's glassy eyes. Each time, the bat grew more terrified. The endless shadows enveloped them.

The last time-jump ended. However, when the shattered skies reappeared, a fissure cracked the ground apart in between Roxie and Rogue. The boulder on Roxie's side split and turned to rubble, while Rogue's heaved up into the boy's stomach. Soon, Rogue tottered over the elevated stone, thousands of feet in the air, with Roxie's hand. "Hold on!" He screeched in angst, as blood seeped out of his stomach. Roxie was dead silent from shock; Cheddar sobbed uncontrollably. Rogue's eyes twitched and were blood red, blurring his vision. He lost too much blood, and his body convulsed unexpectedly, releasing his grip on Roxie. She plummeted far down into the darkness. Rogue stared into his sister's mortified eyes for an instant, but felt to the boy like another eternity.

"No!" He screamed in an earsplitting fashion. "Nooooooooooooo!" Rogue froze, not blinking and with his hand extended into the abyss. "Roxie!" He desperately cried out, thinking it would miraculously revive his sister, but nothing changed. The blue bat began to shed blood tears in agony.

**A/N:** Oh the drama! I typed the last section of this chapter while listening to Hoobastank. They have a lot of music that really gets my heart pumping (Hoobastank rocks!!!)! Before I wrote the scene though, I imagined it over and over until I decided exactly what would happen. However, when I wrote it down and re-read it, the same feeling from my imagination was not there. I just couldn't capture the image I wanted... sigh I really did try to portray it... Oh well, you guys are just going to have to use your brains and try to see it with your imaginations. Just try for me, ok?

Also, just to continue my record of politeness; thank you all for reading Chapter 9! If there is anything you would like to comment, please, please do so!


	10. Flashback, pt 5

Chapter 10: Flashback pt. 5

(At Ocean near Station Square; two hours after battle)

Note: Remember that it is 15 years in the future. Everyone is way older! (I suppose except Shadow because he has eternal youth)

A rusty tattered plane flew overhead. The paint was scraped off and black smoke oozed out of its wings. Shadow smashed his fist on the dials, which shook out of control. Several hours earlier, a dark thunderstorm raged on the horizon. Shadow was certain the weather was hovering over Station Square. Impatience consumed him. However, as he approached the city, all appeared quiet. Shadow instantly leaped out of the jet and onto the beach, letting the Tornado spin out of control and plummet into the water.

Planks of wood drifted among the bloody waves, lapping against Shadow's feet. He cautiously crept along the wreckage. Ash and glass littered the black sand. A dead silence hovered over the dark hedgehog. The shattered skies above him were outlined in black and scarlet. A cold breeze blew from the heavens, across Shadow's feet, and led to the city. Following the wind, Shadow was escorted to an overturned boat. Etched on it, were the chiseled words, 'Blue Thunder.' A weak whimper came from underneath the destroyed vessel. Shadow situated his hands on the rusted railing. He flipped it over to reveal Amy and a third of the children from the nursery. Amy, in a catatonic state, squeezed a crying child and rocked back and forth. Her eyes blankly stared forward. Confused, he shook the distraught hedgehog. She was shivering uncontrollably, but to Shadow's surprise, did not have tears in her petrified eyes. He slapped her face several times until she gasped in surprise.

"Sonic?" She murmured out of instinct. Seeing the dark hedgehog's expression, she realized who the figure was. "Shadow? W-where were you?" He did not respond, remembering his battle with the warrior from earlier.

Shoving the memory off, he asked, "What happened here?" Amy closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

"I was really angry at Tikal and Knuckles," she began, "And when I searched for Tails, I found him here at the docks. I tried to get him to return and do as Knuckles asked, but Tails refused. He said that he couldn't stand fighting by Sonic's killer's side." Amy sighed, patting the child in her arms. "Tails was going to wade out in the sea until the battle was over. Then, he would come back and finish off the warrior himself. I was going to follow him when this girl ran after us. She carried many children with her, and begged us to take them with us. We almost boarded the boat when the girl panicked. She forgot one of the children, and before I could stop her, she was gone. I held the children, while Tails unhooked the anchor. Suddenly, there was this huge earthquake and lightning. Nearly all the children fell out of the boat. Then, suddenly the world around us vanished. When it reappeared, the boat was gone and we were swimming in the turbulent water. Tails and I could only save so many children. We barely reached the beach. However, once the clouds disappeared," Amy closed her eyes, "The girl never came back." Shadow sensed that Amy was speaking of Roxie, and suddenly became concerned. "Tails yelled at me to remain here, while he went to check on everyone else. He hasn't come back yet, though." Amy took several deep breaths, forcing back tears. She succeeded and gazed at Shadow.

"I am going to check out the battlefield as well. You will stay here, right?" Amy slowly nodded. "Good. Watch over the children."

"There is a horrifying feeling in me that their parents are... gone. If so, then I will not only watch them, but I will raise them." Amy promised to herself as Shadow walked away.

Puddles of dark blood rested on the cracked earth. A breeze softly blew dust and sorrow across Shadow's shocked face, now sweating. He stood on a hill, allowing him to see the valley of ruins below. Every skyscraper was disintegrated into the ground. The leftover standing cement walls were splattered with fresh blood. Surrounding the twisted wreckage were dozens of deep craters, all of which contained Knuckles' forces. Not knowing how to react to such tragedy, Shadow froze with a twisted expression of disgust, turmoil, and indifference. After releasing himself from his immobilization, Shadow slogged his way through the crowd of corpses.

Each creature's appearance varied. A fraction possessed frozen faces of horror, while many lay peacefully, with their eyes closed. Some were crawling with blood, and others suffered internal injuries and thus appeared hygienic. Hundreds of the rebels lay on top of each other, as if they plummeted to their deaths from the sky. However, others rested in isolation, elevated on uprooted pieces of earth. A few of them lay limp over steel poles, which were staked to the remaining structure of torn buildings. Shadow sprinted to each creature, checking their pulses, all of which were nonexistent. The gore was too gruesome for the dark hedgehog, and he shut his eyes as he continued entering the heart of the annihilated city.

A faint noise came from behind. Shadow, anxious to witness life, turned to see Cream and Tikal. The echidna, lifeless, rested on the weak rabbit. Cream eyed Shadow and moaned in pain. Her eyelids were too heavy, making it strenuous to look at the hedgehog. She remained silent, breathing shallow raspy mouthfuls of air. A smile flickered on her clammy face. Shadow rested his palm on her burning forehead. Breathing awkwardly, Cream laughed uneasily. "What a huge m-mis-calcu-la-tion, h-huh?"

Ignoring her, Shadow half-lied, "Your children are safe. Amy will take care of them." Of course, he only saw Cheese, but it would be best to let Cream think both of the twins were alright. The rabbit weakly smiled, sighing in relief. Her eyes twitched closed as her head became limp.

Shadow came across similar situations. He found Sally, Charmy, and Espio alive. However, their injuries were too great, and they passed away shortly after. Grudgingly, Shadow continued walking to the heart of the ruins. Never had he seen immense carnage of this magnitude. Limping from his wounded ankle, Shadow felt the physical pain from his wound and searing remorse for not arriving in time. Not only did he fail to be helpful, Shadow revealed the base's location to the warrior. Knuckles was right; they were not ready. Now, the dark hedgehog would live the rest of his life with Maria's as well as an entire population's death on his hands. "Maria," he thought, "What have I done?"

He strolled across the wreckage with his head down. A rock twitched as he stepped on it. Shadow stopped, realizing that someone was underneath it, possibly alive. The dirt clod crumbled as Knuckles appeared beneath, with his fist thrust upwards. Crawling to his feet, the echidna moaned. Shadow appeared indifferent, despite his true feelings of limitless relief. "You look as if you've been hit by a truck," Shadow smiled, attempting to sound funny. Knuckles, however, did not return the enthusiasm, falling onto Shadow. "Hey! Get off," the dark hedgehog exclaimed until he felt blood trickling onto his arms. Knuckles, regaining his strength, stood on his feet. "Sorry. Your red fur makes it hard to see the blood."

"Relax, Shadow," Knuckles replied with ease, "I am fine. They are just skin deep wounds..." He felt his forehead, finding a thin scar which spread across his eyelid. "But I am still kind of weak."

"What happened?"

Knuckles rubbed his head with both hands. "Not really sure. I remember speaking to the warrior, and then everything went dark." Shadow looked at Knuckles, hinting him to continue. "She said that her name was... Dice. However, there was something odd about her. It was as though, she didn't like her job."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "I fought her already. Believe me; she was having a lot of fun, harassing the kid's sister." Suddenly, Shadow gasped. "Oh shit! Where are Roxie and Rogue?" Knuckles looked away and shrugged. This time, it was Knuckles' turn to gasp. "What?" Shadow casually asked, turning to see where Knuckles was looking. His eyes grew wide in astonishment.

"Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed, running past Shadow. A pole pinned her wing to a levitated piece of wreckage, making the bat hover over the ground. Her limp arm hung over the metal stick. Rouge's head slanted at an angle, which put her face in shadow. Knuckles rested his forehead against hers. "Wake up," he whispered, "Please." Meanwhile, Shadow sympathetically stood behind the echidna with his eyes and mouth half open.

Suddenly, Rouge's eyelids began to twitch open. Surprised, Knuckles reared his head back, and then sighed in relief. "Hey, knuckle-head," she softly wheezed. A frail smile appeared when her eyes focused and saw both Knuckles and Shadow. "You aren't both here to talk to little old me, are you?" Shadow smirked, but Knuckles held his breath, hoping Rouge would survive. "Knux, I'm... sorry, about earlier."

"Hey, stop making it sound like you are on your deathbed!" Knuckles panicked. She grimaced in pain and felt Knuckles' bruised cheek with her palm. "Stop it!" Despite the echidna's denial, Rouge knew that her death was nigh.

"Shadow, I know that you were always fond of Rogue. Tell him and Roxie, I'm sorry for always being too busy treasure hunting and not spending time with them. Could you do that for me?"

"Yes," Shadow responded, "I will."

"As for you, echidna," She thought out loud, carefully choosing her last words. "I never really told you this... but I..." Knuckles placed his glove over her mouth, and smiled, knowing what she wanted to confess.

"I think I will leave you two alone," Shadow sighed. "Rouge, you have been a..." The hedgehog was having troubles saying his thoughts, "Uh, an awesome teammate and friend. Farewell." Rouge smiled and closed her eyes, as Shadow walked away, in search of her son.

Several minutes passed as Shadow walked aimlessly. The scenery was repetitive. More ruins. More blood. And more cracked, elevated pieces of earth. Rogue and Roxie were nowhere to be found.

He sat on a fallen tree, taking a break from the hopeless mission. Shadow exhaled into a warm breeze, which pulled dirt fragments and glass shards across his feet. Along with the debris was a torn photograph. "Wha-?" Curious, Shadow hoisted it up, revealing Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Tails sitting at a table with a large birthday cake. Knuckles held the knife, while Amy, who was smiling, jokingly slapped a cheerful Tails for stealing a cake morsel before Sonic blew out the candles.

Shadow quickly searched the horizon, looking for where the picture originated from. With incredible luck, he found a dark figure hovered over a body. The figure, however, quickly saw him and disappeared. Sprinting to the body, Shadow was horrified to discover Rogue with a deep gash in his stomach. The distressed hedgehog rested one hand on the bat's stomach and used the other to prop up Rogue's head. The boy was overjoyed to see Shadow.

"Rogue!"

The bat paused after each word, gasping for air. "Hey, that's ...the... first... time... you... didn't... call me... 'kid.' Who... are you, and... what have... you done... with the... real Shadow?"

"This is no time for jokes, Rogue. Hey listen, your mom, she wanted me to tell you and Roxie that she... uh, loves you."

"Yeah, yeah." Tears of blood poured out of his eyes. The boy sobbed and then, stammered, "...Roxie is... gone." Stunned, Shadow did not respond. Rogue closed his eyes, shaking violently from blood loss. His lungs burned, while his skin was icy cold. At last, Rogue choked out after seeing the photograph in Shadow's hands, "Could you... tell me ...your... version... of Sonic?"

"What?"

"Remember, you ...asked me... to talk... to... everyone... else. Well, I am... asking... you now." Shadow bit his lip, not desiring in any way to disclose information of his past. However, this might be Rogue's last request, and like Maria, Shadow refused to fail him.

"Sonic and I ...were originally enemies. I misinterpreted my friend's wishes and almost did something terrible, so Sonic intended to stop me. It took one of Sonic's friends to help me realize the mistake I made. So, in return and to truly fulfill my friend's desire, I helped Sonic save this world. However, during the battle, I was low on rings, and Sonic gave me most of his. When we performed chaos control, it teleported both of us to another dimension. He was unconscious, so I used the last of my power and rings to teleport him back. Sonic and his friends saved me, so I had to help him in return." Shadow closed his eyes. "He saved me in so many ways, yet when I returned to this world, he was already dead. Of course, now that I think about it, I never really thanked him."

"You... did something... bad, but... they... forgave you?" Rogue repeated as confirmation. Shadow stopped himself from rolling his eyes and nodded. "The warrior, she... is just like... you, but now... you need to... forgive her." Shadow squinted his eyes, not wanting to be a part of another person's dying wishes, let alone help the enemy who annihilated countless worlds. Rogue winced, his lethal injuries were growing worse. "Please? Someone ...needs to... save her from... Eggman. You never... promised me or ...my sister... anything; will... you promise now?"

Shadow paused for several moments, rethinking exactly what he might agree to. Although he let down Maria, Shadow would be able to help his dying friend. "I promise I will save her, Rogue. I promise."

"Good," he weakly smiled, "I... never told you, but... you are... my hero... not Sonic... and... I hated it... when you... called me, 'kid.' ...Thanks for... treating me like... an adult, Shadow."

"No prob." The boy did not respond, and Shadow closed the bat's eyes with his bloody paw. "Sayonara my friend, Rogue the Bat."

(PRESENT)- Ok, technically speaking, it is sixteen years in the future, but you guys know what I mean.

Shadow hovered in a tree above a base. "Why does Dice always have to be late? Damn, I really needed that map layout, but I just couldn't wait at Angel Island any longer," He muttered.

Her incompetence and tardiness was beginning to irritate the dark hedgehog all over again. Out of irritation he spit out, "At least Rogue kept his promises..." The thought triggered a wave of sadness, so Shadow quickly tried to shake the image off.

"I am not sure where the portal would be and how long it will remain there. Damn, I really need that layout! At least I am certain; Robotnik will be on the other side. However, this time I will not fail. Maria: I will make Rogue happy."

He hopped to the ground, basking in moonlight. "Rogue: I will save Dice. I will destroy the master emerald!"

**A/N:** Thank you all for reading Chapter 9: the last part of the really, really long flashback. Poor Rogue, I kind of began to like him...even though he was a kid. Eww, kids. Anyway, I'll try to make this author's note short and sweet, since all my other ones are unbelievably long...so I shall leave you with this final message: please review!


	11. Temporary Rest

Chapter 11: Temporary Rest

Sonic lay on the cracked stairs leading to the shrine, sleeping. Though, it was a dreamless sleep. Four days passed since his arrival in this world, which Knuckles explained was the future. The exhausted hedgehog needed to rest after all of the numerous unwanted surprises.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was perched on a tilted pillar, inspecting the rock, which Dice ordered Sonic to deliver. Nothing was peculiar about the slab. It was just a piece of dirt. Sighing, Knuckles gazed at the snoring hedgehog. After all these years, Sonic was alive. The perpetual guilt, concerning his death, was now meaningless. Knuckles was not responsible if Sonic never died in the first place. For the past year, the echidna blindly waited on Angel Island, hoping for a miracle. With pure luck, Sonic appeared. Now with his long lost friend's help, Knuckles could defeat Eggman. However, Robotnik might still seize control of Dice, repeating the tragedy at Station Square. Besides, Knuckles was not free from his turmoil. Everyone he knew and cared for was gone in an instant while he survived. He knew death would be the consequence of the battle and failed to act upon his instincts. Not to mention, Tails' immeasurable hatred for Knuckles made the situation more complicated. The fox refused to assist Knuckles last time, so why would he agree to help him and Sonic now? Besides, he loathed Dice even more than the echidna. Shadow was of no help either. He consistently disappeared for months, only to reappear for a moment with Dice at Angel Island to discuss plans of attack.

Knuckles massaged the scar on his forehead. None of the pathetic plans thought up by either Dice or Shadow worked. So, why would Knuckles' and Sonic's be any different? Every time the duo was close to Eggman's whereabouts, Dice suddenly grew out of control, or Eggman would disappear to another one of his different worlds. Also, the chaos emeralds disappeared from this world, and Dice was unable to reawaken a fraction of the chaos blade's power without arousing her dangerous alter-ego. "Maybe Sonic won't make much of a difference after all," Knuckles thought. "Even if Sonic miraculously teamed up Shadow, Tails, Amy, Dice, and myself... and then defeated Eggman, it would not change anything. Everyone would still be dead, and this world would remain annihilated."

"Oh come on, lighten up." Knuckles hastily turned around in surprise. "What? You were thinking out loud," Sonic yawned, strolling towards the pillar.

"I am guessing you slept well."

"Hmm? Yeah, I guess. Well, this is definitely no vacation, but at least the sun is nice," Sonic joked as he stretched his legs.

"You really haven't changed at all, have you?" Knuckles suppressed a chuckle, shaking his head.

"Well, it doesn't seem like sixteen years to me, only a few days. So no, I haven't changed," Sonic yawned again. "You know Knux; I could really use a shower." Knuckles smirked. "What? I am covered in mud, oil, and blood. I am not trying to sound overly hygienic but I have some serious cuts and I don't want them to get infected."

"Look around you. Do you think there is going to be a shower here in these ruins?" Knuckles seriously replied, but then smiled at Sonic's expression. A wave of disgust washed over his face. "Of course I bathe Sonic! We are on an island surrounded by water. I repeat, water!" Knuckles weakly laughed and covered his face with his glove. The blue hedgehog grinned at the echidna's amusement. Suddenly, a small growl came from Sonic. He embarrassingly clutched his stomach.

"Hey, I am really hungry. What do you have around here to eat?" He licked his lips as Knuckles jumped to the ground and headed to the shrine. "I could really go for some pizza. No wait! A chili dog! Oh yeah, a super spicy chili dog right off the grill!"

"You are just trying to sound funny aren't you?"

"Well... yeah. I seriously doubt you have chili dogs in this dump... no offense."

"No offense taken," the echidna replied nonchalantly. Lifting a filthy leather bag, he snatched a piece of bread and tossed it to Sonic. The hedgehog smacked his lips, despite the obvious age of the loaf, and bit out a large chunk.

"Ew! What is this crap!?" Sonic spat, and chucked the bread to the ground.

"Food," Knuckles sarcastically replied. "Excuse me if your delicate taste buds can't handle it." A crooked smile grew on Sonic's muzzle; the echidna had returned to his former self.

"Well, I'll pass. At least Amy's soup tasted good," Sonic remarked. However, a sudden wave of sadness overcame Knuckles. Thinking of his former companions and the past was too difficult. Sensing the echidna's guilt, Sonic felt awkward. "Oh, sorry I mentioned it. You must be jealous of her cooking, huh?" Sonic lied, knowing that the problem was more serious than cuisine.

"Right, of course." Knuckles responded, not listening to Sonic's statement. He violently sat down on the shrine's top step and sighed. "So, how exactly are we going to take down Eggman?"

"Dunno." Sonic shrugged and leaned up against one of the altar's pillars. "I haven't thought that far, but it always works out."

Knuckles grimaced at the word of wisdom, "It always works out? Uh, huh sure it does." He rolled his eyes and covered them so Sonic would not see his skepticism. Despite the echidna's attempts, Sonic sensed his disbelief.

However, the hedgehog was exhausted from the guilt surrounding this future and disregarded Knuckles. "Well, what were you saying earlier, about me teaming up everyone? Why wouldn't that work?"

"Sonic, first of all, a whole army was incapable of stopping Dice; how could six people change anything? Second, Tails and Amy refuse to help Shadow, Dice, or me. Thirdly, if we were a team, Eggman could easily take over Dice again and kill us all."

"So, Dice is the one who destroyed Station Square!" Sonic exclaimed.

"We have already been through this Sonic. It wasn't her fault."

"Yes, I know that. However, none of you people have come around and just said it out loud." Sonic remarked. Then, he again, blurted out the obvious, trying to feel the words which said so much, "Dice destroyed Station Square, as well as hundreds of worlds."

"...and people," Knuckles added, closing his eyes.

"There is no time for this, Knuckles. They are gone."

"I realize that. However, you were not there; you couldn't possibly understand." There was an extended silence. Sonic was pondering how to respond. He attempted to fathom exactly what Knuckles might have experienced but stopped.

"You're right. I wasn't, and I couldn't. However, I am a little confused. If you are so mortified by this whole thing, how come you don't hate Dice with every fiber of your being?"

"It wasn't her fault. She is just a casualty like everyone else."

"I see. Well, what is stopping her from destroying something again?"

"In reality, nothing. However, Eggman doesn't need her anymore." Sonic raised his eyebrow in interest. Knuckles continued, "He got his wish for world domination. So, when it was completed, the master emerald returned Dice to normal."

"Normal? What about her creepy red-eyed alter ego? Also, that doesn't make sense; you said Eggman could regain control of her at any time."

"Well, Dice hasn't fully explained it to me. Whenever I bring up the subject, she hastily stops me, or ignores the questions entirely. All I know is that in order for Dice to properly use the chaos blade, she has to follow the master emerald's orders. Whenever she goes into battle, she becomes a relentless killing machine because the emerald tells her to. However, I really don't know any details to answer your question. Dice doesn't like to talk about it. I have a feeling Shadow knows, but he doesn't talk either."

"Oh right, Shadow!" Sonic leaped up, infuriated for not remembering Dice's request. "Did you figure out what that rock was for?"

"No, sorry. I have no idea what Shadow would use it for. It's just a rock." Knuckles handed the stone to Sonic, who was resonating with annoyance.

"I knew it! She tricked me into leaving her! What is that no-good double-crossing freak's problem!?" The infuriated hedgehog hurled the clod across the ground, splitting it into several pieces. Sonic blushed, "Oops."

"Smart, hedgehog. I give you one simple task and then you go and destroy the cargo," Dice retorted, as Sonic tripped back in shock. "I am a freak now, am I?"

"How did you get here so fast!?"

"What do you mean? It took me two days to arrive here." Dice eyed him suspiciously, while Knuckles smirked.

"Sonic, you were asleep for about that long," Knuckles stated in response to Sonic's confused expression.

"Sonic?" Dice pondered, "That is your name?!" She paced around the hedgehog meticulously. "Well, I suppose that answers how you are so fast..." Her voice trailed off, in thought. However, she paused, looking nervous. She shook it off and added, "But Sonic is dead. I don't understand."

The hedgehog, sweating, shook his hands in disagreement. "No, no! I am not Sonic the hedgehog! Um, you see I am a, uh, spy from another world controlled by Eggman. I am just going by the alias of Sonic so that no one is suspicious of me. It's just... I didn't realize he was dead for sixteen years. That is why my alias doesn't make sense," Sonic smiled nervously, as Dice observed his suspicious behavior.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. Dice did not trust Sonic's pathetic explanation, but wanted to hear that he was not the legendary hedgehog and thus decided to believe it. She strolled to the severed rock, inspecting the damage.

Meanwhile, Knuckles squinted at the peculiar hedgehog. They both switched glances and Sonic silently mouthed, "Later." Knuckles raised his eyebrow, slowly shaking his head.

"Did you really have to smash this thing?" Dice rhetorically asked, snatching all the pieces. "Knuckles, can't you keep an eye on this hedgehog for two minutes?" The echidna smirked at Sonic, who stood behind Dice. "You two are such children: just because you can't figure something out doesn't mean you destroy it."

"But, it is just a rock," Sonic demanded, "And you said Shadow was going to be here. You lied about the whole thing so that I would leave you! Oh, that reminds me, the last time I saw you, you were about to die. How in hell are you completely healed?" Dice angrily twisted around, staring at Sonic.

"First of all, if you had not delayed me so much, then Shadow would not have impatiently left." She declared, outraged. Turning to see the broken portions in her hands, Dice began to piece the rock together and continued, "Second, it is none of your business. All you do is interrogate. I should never have told you anything in the first place, Mr. Spy. Why should I tell you how I healed myself?" Once together, Dice fingered the slab and compressed it at certain points. "Thirdly, I never told you a single lie. It is not a rock, you imbecile!" Suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the object. It spread out into a thin sheet of green light. "It produces a 3-D map layout of Eggman's base." Dice fingered the machine, making a chart appear. However, the map quickly flickered and disappeared. "But you destroyed the circuitry inside. You idiot, it was designed to look like a rock so that no one would think of stealing it. This is of no use to Shadow now. I am gonna have to help him at the base in person." Rising to her feet, Dice nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

"And the problem with that is?" Sonic asked.

"Eggman could order Dice to kill Shadow, and she wouldn't be able to stop herself," Knuckles casually answered.

"Oh!" Sonic exclaimed in understanding, "Well, Knuckles and I can come with you." Knuckles nodded.

A low laugh came from Dice. "Very funny, hedgehog. Seriously though, I have to get to Shadow. Later." She sped away, leaving a plume of dust. Knuckles coughed, as Sonic grabbed Knuckles' arm and ran after Dice. The immense wind caused from Sonic's speed hurt Knuckles' fur.

"Hey!"

"We can't afford to lose her!" Sonic proclaimed.

**A/N:** Thanks, yet again, for reading my story and chapter 11! ...Wow, I am on chapter 11. Oh, and thank you all for reviewing. The more reviews, the more I am fueled to write more chapters and thus post sooner.


	12. Trouble Beckons

Chapter 12: Trouble Beckons

Knuckles' feet rose off the ground while Sonic held his arm tight. The wind nipped at the echidna's face and the speed pulled at his cheeks. Closing his eyes did not stop the sand from sneaking into his eyes. His whole body ached at Sonic's relentless speed.

"Stop already!" He shrieked. However, Sonic did not reply, his eyes fixed forward. Knuckles' stomach twisted as Sonic dodged left and right in an attempt to catch up to Dice. Despite the current of air thrashing his ears, Sonic heard nothing except a mute feeling of hopelessness.

To Sonic's surprise, Dice was much faster than he remembered. She quickly became a dot on the horizon and the hedgehog's heart skipped a beat, thinking that he might lose her. In desperation, he quickened his pace. His blue ears whipped back in the wind as he cut through the thick air. The aero-dynamics of the hedgehog's figure was reduced immensely by Knuckles. Sonic felt his left side drag behind, making it difficult to maintain speed. He angrily squinted his eyes, pretending to see a shorter distance between himself and his prey. The scenery eluded his fixated eyes. Sonic was exhausted from seeing or even thinking about the ruins. All that mattered to him now was to catch Dice.

"Sonic," The echidna moaned, but again there was no response. He struggled to tilt his skull up. Dirt pelted his eyes, while Knuckles stared into Sonic's. They were glued in place. An icy appearance glazed over them. The ghostly pupils concerned Knuckles. Never had he witnessed Sonic so resolute. Usually, the hedgehog was nonchalant and easy going no matter how serious a situation became. Now, Sonic appeared to have a new persona. However, his thoughts quickly shattered when Sonic sped up again. Knuckles groaned at the pain squeezing his fur. "Sonic!" He screamed, breaking the hedgehog's trail of thought.

Turning his head, Sonic distinguished new scratches on his friend's face from flying rocks. Blood trickled down the echidna's forehead and seeped into his eyes. Gasping, Sonic halted his feet, sliding to a stop. "Sorry about that," he replied at last, releasing Knuckles' wrist. A black silhouette of a hand crawled on the echidna's arm. Knuckles quickly rubbed it, trying to ease the awakened pain.

"Dice is only going to the base. Relax. It isn't far from here," Knuckles grimaced in annoyance. "Have some patience for once."

"Come on, Knuckles! Who do you think you're talking to?" He joked, attempting to allow the echidna to forget the hedgehog's earlier behavior.

"We are about two minutes away; there is no hurry." Knuckles commenced walking forward, as Sonic followed. "So don't ever grab me again, k?"

"Hehe, right." Sonic sheepishly smiled.

"Why did you lie to Dice earlier anyway?"

"Oh, uh," Sonic frowned. "I don't care if you trust her or if it wasn't her fault. The fact remains: she is the sole cause of an apocalypse. Even if she is temporarily on our side, Dice could easily work for Eggman again right? Well, if Eggman gets word that I am alive then obviously he will order her to take me down... Of course, I am not afraid or anything like that... but if she is suddenly evil again, nothing is going to stop her from annihilating this whole universe!"

"Being a little melodramatic, eh? I wouldn't say the whole universe. Though, wouldn't saying you are a spy be just as bad as admitting that you're Sonic?"

"Oh yeah, huh?" He replied, embarrassingly shaking his head. "I couldn't think of anything else at the time."

"Right," Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I haven't seen any Eggman signs or logos around here. How come? What happened to the whole 'Eggman Empire' thing?" Sonic pondered, as the duo approached a valley with a humongous base resting inside. A steel plated edifice rose deep into the sky with hangers and other small buildings surrounding it. "See? What happened to his whole megalomaniac obsessions with his name all over everything? I don't see his ugly face on the building."

"I am not sure. I haven't exactly seen him for the past year. Though, think about it. If he dominates all these countless worlds, then why would he waste his time here? After all, this is the only world with rebels and the only one he ordered Dice to destroy to this degree."

"How do you know that?"

"Shadow told me," Knuckles replied, and then began to glide down to the base. Sonic ran beside him and stopped at the unlocked entrance. "That's kind of odd. Since when are the doors open?" Sonic shrugged and sauntered inside the darkness with Knuckles behind.

"Hey, where do you think Dice went?"

"To find Shadow, so I am betting she went to the control room where all the cameras are."

"And where would the control room be?"

"Dunno," Knuckles sighed. "Around."

After many blind turns, Sonic and Knuckles continued through the base, completely lost. The pitch black hallway beckoned the duo to enter deeper. Darkness clutched them relentlessly, as if pulling them deep into a bottomless pit. Despite the ominous shadows, Sonic and Knuckles nonchalantly continued forward, listening to the clanking noises of their feet against the cold steel ground. It echoed down the hall, but stopped abruptly. Knuckles smiled, figuring that they were close to something. He, as well as Sonic, cautiously stepped towards the end of the dark hall. Both nervously pushed their hands forward, anxious to feel a wall or better yet, a light switch.

However, Sonic found neither. A wet, cold sensation seeped through Sonic's gloves and onto his fingertips. He slowly pressed his palms across the surface. Some condensation rested on the cylindrical object. The hedgehog figured he found a glass container of some sort. Kneeling, Sonic caressed the foundation of the object, feeling a cold breeze elevate out the icy, metal pedestal. Suddenly, the lights above flickered on. A brilliant blue luminosity enveloped the room. Sonic gazed in front of him to see a body floating in a glass container filled with a creamy liquid. Gasping, he fell back, seeing rows upon rows of glass cases. A wave of disgust flooded his face. He clutched his chest, panting in surprise.

"What are those things?" He turned his head to see Knuckles standing next to a metal lever with a sign posted above it stating 'Main Power.'

"I have no idea." Knuckles inspected them, covering his mouth with one glove, while the other stroked the crystal glass. All the figures in the cases were faceless and slightly translucent. However, each appeared different. The liquid color varied from murky to clear with an array of colors. Not to mention, each body was built differently. Some with spikes, others with tails or wings.

Approaching a computer panel with dozens of glowing buttons, Knuckles and Sonic switched glances. Both of them lightly pressed each button, in curiosity. Lights shot out from beneath each capsule after Sonic pressed several controls simultaneously. A nervous smile came from the hedgehog in fear of the thousands of bodies awakening.

Meanwhile, Knuckles pulled several levels, switching on a blue screen. Glowing black letters began to type themselves on the computer. It read, 'Accessing data... Loading.'

"Ha! Nice work Knux!" Sonic smiled and knocked fists with Knuckles. They, both, patiently gazed at the screen, until a diagram of a human body appeared. Underneath it letters wrote, 'Experimentation of Project Chaos.' Knuckles and Sonic nervously gazed at each other. Suddenly the computer beeped and switched to another screen, with only text.

'_Journal Entry 001: After realizing that the chaos blade is of no use to me until the child ages, I must begin this experiment to make myself more powerful. The stone tablets predicted that this child could annihilate worlds at a time, but I have not seen even a glimmer of evil in her. She appears untainted and naïve. Not to mention, she has trouble holding the blade. She is useless to me. There must be a way to gain control of this blade faster or without—_' the screen began but began to flicker and dim.

Before the entry could finish, the computer jumped ahead, revealing dozens of diagrams and video clips. The videos were filled with static and hard to for Sonic to see. However, he and Knuckles made out several scenes. In one, the hundreds of glass containers were filled with water. Then, a metallic arm dropped different chemicals into each canister, changing their color. The computer blinked and skipped forward again, showing a growth of the organisms. At first they appeared like blobs of mush but soon expanded into the figures, which Sonic and Knuckles encountered minutes earlier.

The echidna's and hedgehog's mouth dropped gazing at the computer. Diagrams of the master and chaos emeralds flickered translucently over a picture of one organism from the glass containers. The color in the chaos emeralds faded, while a similar shade slowly filled inside the outline of the organism's diagram. Letters on the bottom blinked quickly, 'Administering Chaos Element.' Sonic covered his mouth and gasped. The screen flickered yet again.

'_Journal Entry 063: This project has taken longer than expected. It is probably ready for real 'human' testing. However, it may not be safe yet. Besides, she has already grown to an acceptable age and shows surprising loyalty. Not to mention speed, agility, strength, and intelligence. Her abilities appear endless. I believe I will send her on a mission soon, but will continue my research. Though the chaos' power seems strong in her, maybe it would help to use her as a test subject befor—_' the screen suddenly flashed white and ceased the transmission.

"Oh come on!" Sonic yelled and smashed his fist onto the controls. "Start up already!" Knuckles anxiously smiled and began to help Sonic with the controls. However, none of the buttons would turn on the computer. Infuriated, Knuckles punched hard on the panel. Sparks flew upwards as the wiring from inside revealed itself. Laughing, Sonic added, "Smooth, very smooth." The echidna sighed uneasily.

The glass containers suddenly rose, releasing the icy liquids, which quickly evaporated. All of the figures slowly dropped and rested on top of their pedestals. Knuckles and Sonic panted nervously, sprinting to one of the experiments. "Hey, it looks like that creature we fought when we first met Tikal... You know, Chaos!" Sonic gasped.

Suddenly, the creature twitched and rose to its feet. The transparent figure saw Sonic. It screeched loudly, making Knuckles' and Sonic's ears throb. All of the experiments stood up and approached them. They were quickly surrounded.

"Oh, shit," Knuckles and Sonic nervously whispered in unison.

**A/N:** Hey everybody! Thanks for reading yet another chapter! Wow, this chapter took me a long time to type. I really had to force my fingers on the keyboard. Like I said before, I have thought pretty far into the story, and I kind of wanted to write a different chapter before this one... but then it wouldn't be in chronological order now would it? Anyway, although I don't really like this chapter, at least it is done! Oh, and sorry it was shorter than my usual chapters. I usually try between 2,000 and 2,500 words per chapter but this one barely made 1,700. Oh, well.

This author's note might get long, so bare with me. I am really sorry I took so long to post this chapter. With this whole "getting my story deleted," I had to go back and re-edit everything to make sure I didn't go overboard with the swearing. I only kept them there if I felt the literally had to be there. (Like when Tails was angry at Knuckles). Anyway, if one of you easily offended readers are considering re-deleting this for its language content, then e-mail me first so I can change it. Ok?

When I re-edited stuff however, I noticed quite a bit of the paragraphs/sentences I wrote were missing. Probably because I edited them on the "Quickedit/Preview" part of the document manager. Anyway, my point is, there are many different changes to the previous chapters and I hope they are not worse than before. I hope.

As for the next chapter, I am not sure when I will post it. Sure, it is labor day weekend, but I haven't even begun typing any of it, so I honestly can't say when it will be finished, considering how I usually obsessively edit things (though I realized I made several spelling errors in previous chapters, after I posted them...hehe, oops). I'll try to post it soon and make it extra long....of course, the amount of reviews I receive are a giant factor to the speed of my typing (hint, hint).

Lastly, as for the very first author's note in chapter 1, I was inaccurate. The Allies were not the ones who deleted my story, so for jumping the gun like an arrogant idiotic pinhead, I apologize to them. Also, I recieved two e-mails from members of the Allies concerning the truths about their organization. I realize this author's note is growing longer and longer by each word so I am just going to re-direct you guys to Blue Dragon X's bio. I think it basically describes their purpose in a civl manner. However, I know that there are rumors concerning the Allies (especially since I believed one and started another), and Blue Dragon X requested that I help stop them. So, although I personally do not agree with their actions of deletion, you deserve the truth about them. So yeah, go to his bio section...


	13. Silhouette of the Ominous Shadows

Chapter 13: Silhouette of the Ominous Shadows

Dice approached a metallic doorway. Rust attacked it ages ago, and the lock on it was destroyed by dust. All the motion detectors and eye scanners which once crawled over the metal, sparked occasionally, signaling to Dice that her high profile-clearance was unnecessary.

Caressing the fingerprint scanner out of tradition, she grudgingly gazed through the closed entrance. Closer to the doorway, the wires and chalk illustrations on it became vividly clear. The drawings resembled rough designs portrayed by someone with the skill of a toddler. There were seven white circles, each glowing with green lines above their silhouettes. Above them stood a white stick. The symbols were familiar, but she did not remember drawing them, nor seeing them before. Though, she must have walked through this entrance dozens of times, almost a decade ago. Butterflies flew in her stomach, when she considered physically entering the room. It held excruciating forgotten memories which Dice no longer wanted to be a part of.

However, the nameless contents of the room were important. Though she did not remember exactly what lay behind the door, her soul knew it was meaningful and necessary. In fact, Dice was unaware of how she reached this location, initially. She recalled the hundreds upon thousands of different passageways and which one led to the control room, where Shadow probably resided. However, her instincts tugged at her body to this familiar door. Almost unconsciously. One minute she was infuriated at Angel Island, and the next, a depressing sense enveloped her in front of this ominous doorway.

The rusty, wet smell invaded her nostrils, so despite ruing ever finding the door, she applied pressure on the fingerprint scanner. The metal wall quickly shot upwards, with a whooshing noise, and an even mustier smell escaped into the silent hallway. Pretending to be indifferent, she sauntered through the access way. Another whooshing noise rung behind her as the door closed.

There was one dim light bulb above the tiny room, with a chain dangling from its foundation. The luminosity was weak, but Dice could comprehend the contents of the room, which hardly be called as such. Considering its size, the space was more of a closet. A miniscule vicinity within which, only one person could reside. In one corner lay a metal bunk bed, extending from out of the wall, like those in a jail cell. The mattress and sheets were larger than the bed and overflowed onto the floor.

Dice carefully walked to the bed, one step at a time, and then turned around to face the whole room.

Her room. The room which she lived in as a child. The memory was dim and hard to see, but she knew the recollection was real. Of course the space seemed larger when she was young but it was hers nonetheless. This was her bedroom, her home, her pathetic little sanctuary.

She plopped on to the bed, sitting up. Dust flew out from underneath her and visually floated as fog around the room. Her eyes followed the particles until it reached the other corner of the room which held metal cabinets. They contained her clothes, or at least her memory told her that was the case.

Despite wanting to investigate, Dice remained frozen on her bed. All she wanted was to fade away just like her room. Just like her childhood. Just like the warmth which was once a part of her heart. Sadness crept over her and for once, Dice did not attempt to forget or futilely escape it. She touched the feeling, truly trying to understand her unhappiness. Trying to understand herself, her purpose, and why and what she did on that day almost two years ago. However, the warrior found nothing. In fact, recollecting her memories from that day revealed to Dice that she did not even remember what happened. She remembered an entrance to the base, a blue bat, and Knuckles' sympathetic face. Nothing more. Something was wrong, and it frightened her.

When that hedgehog asked Dice about her role in the situation, she did not respond. Was it because she knew she was responsible or that she did not know? The blackness in her heart was fully aware of every evil deed she ever committed. Her red-eyed alter-ego. However, when she was consumed in darkness and remembered her misdeeds, her other memories, doubts, and conscience were distant. She had two different souls, or at least, one soul which was divided literally between the life of a villain and hero. And each was indifferent to the other half, almost separate. Pure confusion ensued and thus, she grudgingly stood up, sauntering towards her clothes cabinet.

To her surprise, within its contents were clothes of her size, not that of a child. "Someone knows I am here," she whispered inaudibly.

Whether the clothes contained tracking devices or a poison that could be absorbed through the skin, Dice's current attire was trashed. She could not fight to her full potential with clothing that might affect her aero-dynamics, or make her trip over when running. Besides, with the chaos blade at hand and the moon nigh, she considered herself immortal.

Shedding her bloody clothes and shoes, Dice reached within the contents of the cabinet. She found a skin-tight battle-ready undergarment, like that of a gymnast. It was a purple gray with a vertical black stripe running from the center of the turtle neck down to the ankles. Dice slipped it on over her underwear and zipped up the back, which contained holes for her spikes and tail. The cut was sleeveless and the legs ended an inch below her knees.

She searched, again, the contents of the cabinet to find an earring, a pair of white biker gloves, and shorts. Dice felt naked with the skin-tight leotard and thrust the khaki colored cargo shirts over her hips. They ended abruptly before her knees, allowing the leotard to be seen on her legs. The outfit in its entirety was very slimming, not to mention complimented her breasts which were almost invisible in size. Her black-white fur with the purple-gray and tannish-gray was extremely appealing, and vanity took over Dice temporarily.

Quickly switching gloves, Dice finally came across the single silver hoop earring. From gazing it at the side, it reminded her of the crescent moon. Curious as to why there only existed one, she caressed her ears. To her surprise, she found a hole on one ear and another earring, hidden on the inside of the other. Dice took out the previous one and gazed at the post. It was placed in reverse, so the shimmering diamond could not be found from simply looking at Dice's ear. The post earring reminded her of a star or possibly a sun. Both earrings, despite not matching, seemed to go together like yin and yang. She carefully put both earrings in their proper, visible places. Dice caressed both ears and felt whole. At least, more whole than she usually felt.

Also, with this change in attire, Dice became more focused, feeling energized. She remembered the situation with Shadow as well as its urgency. However, two items remained unchecked which Dice quickly remembered. Besides, her memories were equally important as Shadow's mission. After all, Shadow refused to tell Dice anything about his 'duty.' He just came to her one day, introduced himself, and requested her aide. True, whatever his mission was, it involved the death of Eggman. That was one common interest, not to mention both their personalities were similar. Tasks between the two were simple because both agreed in the way of fulfilling them. Also, Dice liked Shadow in an eccentric way. He was not openly kind, but was mature and focused. Two characteristics that everyone can agree are important to achieve any type of goal.

Escaping her trail of thought, Dice headed back towards her bunk bed. Bending down despite the suffocating dust, she extended her arm underneath the metal bed. A warm, sharp object came across her grasp. She pulled it towards her but did not gaze at it and continued searching the floor.

Memory serving, she recalled a box that contained an object of immense importance to her childish personality. Finding it at last, she thrust the weak, old box out from underneath her, accidentally hitting the sharp object from before. Both the box and the warm item were now visibly in front her.

_The chaos emerald. _

It was the red chaos emerald resting next to her lap. She nervously grabbed both the emerald and the box, and sat on the musty mattress.

Disregarding the emerald, she opened the box, within which she knew was important to her. _SOAP_ _shoes_? The blue and black sneakers seemed unimportant by comparison to the emerald. Why did she remember the box over the hidden emerald? Until suddenly the memory, despite being broken and vague, came back to her...

_After attack on Station Square. All the bodies... and ruins. No memory. What happened, where am I? Smoke, blood...gore, piles and piles of gore. That bat... the boy...he...who is Shadow? And Sonic...the bat knew of...the photograph? ..._

The memory began to physically hurt her skull, and Dice clutched it vigorously. However, no matter what pain, she must know...

_His childhood...his sister, told me everything and I, him. All the blood...his tears...told of his happiness... sister... Shadow...appeared...ran away...scared, forgotten... something's wrong...pain in eyes...chest on fire, can't breath. Pain, pain, pain! Aaah! Loss of conscious... woke up... in underground base? ...destruction, wreckage, gore. The shoes... lying there untouched, untainted. Same as in photograph... _

The shoes were almost a symbol to her. Whoever this nameless bat from her memory was, he knew of a happier childhood which she had not. Despite the blood and his wounds, he was content, saved by a hero, Shadow. Was that why Dice liked Shadow? She thought he could save her, too? However, these shoes, they were the ones that all the rebels wore. They fought for a cause and believed in it until their deaths. She did not believe in a cause, or anything. She did not even know what her purpose was.

The blue sneakers were more important than her emerald. The chaos emerald was power, one which she could not control without wreaking death, while these shoes were freedom. One that she could never possess. All those years ago, Dice used chaos control, thus hiding the emerald and the shoes under the bed without physically entering the room. All of which, she committed subconsciously. Dice did it to remind herself of the little boy, and to be frank, it worked.

Dice tugged the shoes onto her feet. They were low cut and matched her leotard, not to mention made her legs slimmer due to the shoes' immense size. True, the sneakers were clunky, but they were empowering. Dice felt secure, bold, and even free.

Clutching the chaos emerald, Dice finally exited her bedroom. She gazed back with one final glance and left all her regrets in the room. No one was going to rescue her for all she had done and the past was indeed the past. Her childhood was not a happy one and that could not change. It would never change. She had to accept, forget, and move forward. It was time to leave her sadness behind. With the hedgehog's, Shadow's, and Knuckles' aide, maybe she could escape her alter-ego and that relentless incantation.

"And I will, even if it means through my death."

"Will what my dear?" inquired an insidious hiss. Her heart froze in fear, knowing to whom the voice belonged. Her mind and thoughts evaporated, as if never existing. The resolutions from earlier were immediately scattered into oblivion. Her body unwillingly grew rigid, as her eyes remained frozen, gazing through the wall.

"I will serve you master Robotnik," she answered, truly believing the words. Her eyes were emblazoned red.

"Ha-ha, of course you will," he snickered, noticing the chaos emerald. However, he remained indifferent to its resonating power.

"Have you new orders for me? I have tortured and tormented the four who you requested that I keep alive."

"Excellent," he sneered, with an eerie smile.

Robotnik appeared different. For one, he was much leaner. His facial expressions seemed sharper, more malicious. Pure evil resonated about his figure. The same clothing draped over his body, but the colors were brighter, demanding attention. Overall, his stature made him taller than in reality, and ominous looking. His wicked smile gleamed pure white, while his goggles were black as coal. His infamous mustache was smaller, almost invisible, with orange hair replacing it on his scalp. The malevolent Robotnik stood with confidence.

"At last my plans and research is completed," he began.

"And what do you wish me to do?" Dice blindly asked in a monotone voice. Robotnik laughed wickedly and grabbed her cheek.

"Dear, when my plan is carried out, I will have no need for your pathetic hide. Nor the blade or for the other four. The reason I requested you to keep them alive is so I can test out my plan before I carry it out on my other realms. True, I am emperor, but that is only due to your efforts. I must have ultimate power to truly be ruler! And that means to steal yours."

"I shall give it to you," she replied in a whisper; even with her alter-ego in control, she felt a twinge of disgust. However, Robotnik's power over her was too immense.

"You fool, I already have it in my grasp," he laughed, "But I need to test my other plans and fully obtain it. Of course, until I do that, I still need your aide. But don't worry, your time will come."

"What do you request of me?"

"Destroy this facility, and the research within. I don't want anyone else to understand my plans now do I? Also, kill two of them."

"Who?"

"Either Tails, Amy, Knuckles, of Shadow," he retorted in disgust, "I don't care who or how. The smarter of them. I can't have them figuring out this plan. Though, when I return to do my tests, they won't stand a chance," he laughed.

"Some of them are in the base as we speak."

"Excellent, annihilate them along with the base."

"Do you desire the chaos emerald my master?"

"Soon. You, keep it safe. I will contact you further. Remember, destroy the base," he sneered.

"But of course."

"If only you were like this all the time..." He frowned. His wicked smile grew and he grabbed Dice by the throat. "Do not fail me, like you have in the past." Dice said nothing, allowing Robotnik's filthy claws sink deeper into her skin.

Suddenly, an immense pain shot through her neck. Even the body of Dice's alter-ego could not withstand the searing lines of pain, pulsating through her body. She gasped and Robotnik threw her to the ground. "Listen to me Slice. Do not let your other personality know of this. Trick her into thinking she is succeeding, that everything you are doing is a part of her plan. However, let her be aware of my presence and our future meeting. I will contact you through the emerald."

Slice nodded, rubbing her neck.

"Now if you don't mind..." Robotnik glared at the warrior and then motioned his hand. She retracted her blade and cut through space. A visible hole in time was visible and Robotnik quickly entered it. "Until we meet again."

After lying unconscious for several minutes, Dice was awakened to a twinge of pain in her neck. She recollected everything.

Slice did not want her power stolen and thus, she allowed Dice to know of Eggman's plans. However, Dice could not stop herself from running to the main circuitry. Her fingers involuntarily flew upon the wires and re-routed them.

Suddenly, the hallway became pitch black. A red pulsing light flickered on and off.

The base was on countdown for self-destruct.

**A/N: **Well, this definitely thickens the plot, now doesn't it? Remember to leave a review, and in turn, I will thank you and post the next chapter sooner. Oh and I decided to give Dice's red-eyed alter-ego a name to eliminate the confusion. But I just want to make it clear that they are not two different people, in fact 'Slice' is...well you'll find out on your own when the future chapters come in. . .

Also, I just want to re-iterate that my story was deleted and so were the reviews. Please, please, please review all of the chapters! I really desire feedback whether it be _polite_ criticism or encouragement of certain aspects of my writing. Please, please, please review! I don't often beg, but come on guys! Puleez....


	14. Sweet n' Sour Surprises

**A/N:** A month and a half without updating... -shudders- Sorry guys. I had some serious writer's block for this chapter, hehe, and having a hectic schedule doesn't help much either. Anyway, I would like to dedicate this chapter to all my lovely reviewers! Thank you _Windfield, Kelly, and especially RC-sonicCRAZED_. Thank you all so much; your reviews are the main reason why I even got the strength to type up this chapter.

So anyway, enjoy...

Chapter 13: Sweet n' Sour Surprises

Sonic and Knuckles stood back to back, staring at the infinite numbers of creatures surrounding them. Both quickly switched their surprise to immense concentration.

"How many can you take?" Sonic whispered.

"All those that you can't!" He yelled and quickly ran into a horde of enemies. The echidna, constantly throwing punches, had steely fire in his eyes.

The hedgehog laughed, "Now that is the echidna I know."

Sprinting in the opposite direction, Sonic headed for one creature in particular. However, instead of blind punches, he made a sharp turn left, and then ran around in super-sonic circle. Wind quickly shot up from his incredible speed, as Sonic soon made a path around dozens of enemies. All of which soon became victim to the ever-growing tornado. The creatures flew upwards, only to fall back down unharmed. All of them slowly stood up menacingly.

"What? You gotta be kiddin' me!" Sonic panted breathlessly, but did not finish his statement before a creature from behind attempted to hit him. As usual, his speed rescued Sonic from a fatal blow. He slid on his knees to escape, only to skate into a different horde. On the floor, Sonic nervously gazed into the baleful eyes from above.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was not fairing off so well, either. As he pummeled dozens of enemies, only more came.

"They are never ending!" He punched repeatedly, moving faster and faster until a crimson light glow emanated from his fists. Making a path, Knuckles thrust his one claw forward, and the bright light destroyed everything within proximity.

Only water rested on the tile floor. Relieved, Knuckles turned around, to see Sonic nowhere to be found.

An ear-shattering screech came from a group of creatures, which unbeknownst to Knuckles were encircling Sonic. They all drove their claws downwards in an attempt to pierce Sonic's flesh. Luckily he rolled over on his side, escaping the ring.

As Sonic crawled, Knuckles noticed the hedgehog and performed the same attack upon the creatures.

"I thought you'd be rusty after all this time," Sonic laughed weakly.

"I thought you'd be better," Knuckles cruelly retorted, as he sauntered around the puddles of water.

Sonic merely laughed and limped towards the red echidna.

"What's wrong?!"

"Just a scratch really," he replied and attempted to stand upright, revealing a deep gash on his leg. The pain was minimal, but still made it difficult to walk.

The water surrounding them began to vibrate slowly. Knuckles sighed in annoyance and grabbed Sonic's arm.

"Let's get out of here already."

"What happened to the whole 'don't touch me!' thing?"

"You're hurt, and there is no way you are going to die again." Knuckles yelled in return, sprinting to the closest doorway as the water creatures slowly reformed.

"I can run!" The hedgehog scolded, despite his amusement from Knuckles' comment. Had the echidna really missed Sonic that much? _No, of course not, he just refused to be at fault for another catastrophe... right?_

Knuckles released Sonic as he punched the control panels alongside the doorway. It slowly creaked open... a little too slowly. Both of them crawled underneath its rusty metal and then closed the airtight door from the other side.

Water seeped from underneath the door. Both Sonic and Knuckles recognized this, becoming extremely nervous. Now they were cramped in this small passageway with an infinite number of creatures, all of which indestructible.

"We can't take 'em on now!" Sonic shouted as he ran down the hall. Knuckles quickly ensued, and was surprisingly faster than the hedgehog. No longer in their solid form, the creatures continued after them, surging like a crazed ocean.

Now the gash in Sonic's leg began to take its toll. The pain coursed through his veins with relentless force. Though despite his shallow breaths, he was able to stay ahead of the malevolent tide.

Knuckles and Sonic sprinted along the winding path, blindly turning at any intersection without knowing their destination. Until, they reached a dead-end. Panting, both turned around to the immense wave of tainted liquid soon to crash upon them.

"Knuckles?"

"Yeah?"

"Any last words?"

"Yeah. The plot in Sonic Heroes was a big let-down; you shouldn't have agreed to licensing it."

"And you're dubbed voice in Sonic X is really annoying."

"I'm glad we got that off our chests."

"Sure Knux, sure."

The flood quickly enveloped them, raising the two heroes many feet above the steel floor. Soon they reached the ceiling, with both heads crushed against it. The liquid stung at Sonic's wound, slowly electrocuting him. He caressed the ceiling above and felt a small recess upon it.

However, the liquefied creatures had already eradicated all bubbles of air. Soon Sonic and Knuckles would drown. The blue hedgehog's wound seeped blood and made it difficult to see Knuckles. Despite this, Sonic tried to show Knuckles the opening, but to no avail. In desperation, he waved his fist back and forth, until hitting Knuckles' head. The angered echidna swam towards Sonic to throw a punch, but quickly saw what the hedgehog was pointing to.

Knuckles punched hard on the recess, to open a vent. He quickly jumped up and then dragged Sonic in. Without time to catch their breath, they ran down another hall, but this time, found a working control panel. Knuckles immediately smashed the panel in two, making it short-circuit and thus electrifying the liquid.

"That won't stop it for long," the echidna gasped, running down the hallway.

"Right."

They sprinted to the best of their ability, despite immense fatigue, and found a closed doorway with flashing lights.

"This has got to be the only place here that is turned on."

"Must be the control room."

"Hurry, those things are probably on our tails!" Sonic breathlessly rasped as he placed his hand on a control panel next to the door. It made a quick swishing noise, and both heroes quickly jumped inside. The technology sensors realized they entered and immediately closed the door again.

Sonic collapsed on the wall and sank to floor, panting. With all that adrenaline, he did not realize how severe his wound had become. The blood was diluted and all over his leg. Clutching it, the blue hedgehog looked up to see Knuckles staring straight ahead.

There was Shadow.

"Shadow." Knuckles said, as calmly as possible. "Where is Dice?"

"How should I know!? Because of her, I... I... Never mind! I need to concentrate," The dark hedgehog cruelly retorted without changing his focus from the keyboard in front of him. He was rapidly typing, searching... desperately searching. Knuckles leisurely sauntered to Shadow's side, as Sonic grudgingly stood on his feet.

"I need to know; where is she? She was looking for you and was very nervous. What are you planning?"

"I am too busy to be concerned with your nagging questions."

"Maybe I... err we can help."

"This is none of your business! Go back to the haunted island from whence you came."

"Wow that was an interesting comeback. Slightly cliché if you ask me."

"STFU Sonic!" There was a long silence. Shadow glanced upwards, without turning around. "SONIC?!?!"

"Hehehe." The blue hedgehog smiled with extreme amusement; he was wondering how Shadow would react. Though Sonic was flattered that Shadow recognized his voice so quickly, even after so many years.

"Why you... you!" At last Shadow thrust himself around to find both Knuckles and Sonic laughing. "You were alive!!!"

"Long story."

At first Shadow was not sure how to react. His vented anger seemed to rise exponentially but when the fact sank in, all the dark hedgehog could feel was... happiness. His mouth gaped open and the incredulous hedgehog limped backwards, tripping on the control panel.

A smile was plastered on his face, "You bastard." Sonic and Knuckles snickered at the remark, until suddenly all the lights switched off. It was pitch black.

"Smooth Shadow."

"Wasn't me."

Suddenly a flashing red light came on. It was like a heartbeat: on and off, on and off, pulsating red and black light.

"What the--?!"

"The base... it's on self-destruct!" Shadow yelled.

**A/N:** Wow the beginning of this chapter is really bad huh? Like I said, serious writer's block. At least the transition chapter is finally over. Now it can get interesting! Remember to leave me a review! It's what keeps me going. Oh, did I already thank my reviewers? I just want to reiterate: thanks for boosting my esteem guys.


	15. Countdown

**A/N:** Hey, hey everyone! I am so glad I got that previous chapter off my chest. It wasn't exactly my best work, but at least it's over with. Now we can focus on the good stuff! By the way, thank you reviewers: _Windfield, Daikonran, MysticJon15, RC-sonicCRAZED, and Shadow Stalkr!!!_

Chapter 15: Countdown

"Self-destruct? I bet those... things... did it!" Knuckles snarled, walking to Shadow's side, now facing the control panel.

The dark hedgehog was frantically typing on the dusty buttons which glowed with a faded luminescence. Shadow did not even notice Knuckles carefully observing him. He quickly forgot about Sonic's presence, focusing all thought on the codes in front of him. The echidna at his side merely gazed at the technological mastery that Shadow possessed. The last time Knuckles saw Shadow was only a good twenty minutes ago, but his persona seemed different; desperate. Every time the red light periodically flickered on, Knuckles witnessed the fear in his friend's eyes. This was not from the base's imminent danger, but something else. He knew something, and whatever it was had Shadow in utter panic.

Meanwhile, Sonic remained still. He held the role of a spectator. This world he was now in had progressed many years into the future. Everyone he knew was either dead or extremely different. Sonic suddenly understood that as he observed his two allies. They would never return to the people they once were, forever tainted by the horrid vicissitudes of their past. Not to mention, Sonic was absent through all of it, completely ignorant to the true terror of the chaos blade. He was separate from this world and no matter how hard he could possibly try to help his allies, Sonic could not assist them and would remain a spectator.

"Well?" asked Knuckles earnestly, breaking Sonic's trail of thought.

"Well what?" Shadow retorted, ignoring the bleating alarm which blared after the periodic red light faltered.

"Can you stop it?"

"Of course not," Shadow sighed with annoyance. "Robotnik would never design anything with a code to reverse the process. That way, it'll ensure no one can stop his plans. Quite ingenious actually."

"Then what are you doing?! We need to get out of here!" The echidna gasped.

"And where to?" Sonic finally engaged into the conversation, stumbling towards the monitor. "Those water creatures are outside. We'd drown before we could even attempt to escape."

"What water creatures?"

"Long story, Shadow. Sonic accidentally pressed this button and unlocked these... things... with powers similar to chaos'."

"ME?! You're the one who smashed it into oblivion!"

"Do you two really have time for this?!" Shadow groaned.

Of course, neither hedgehog nor echidna listened to reason. Knuckles pounced on top Sonic, but even with his injured leg, the hedgehog dodged the attack. With his cocky attitude, Sonic stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, you're going down now!"

As the two started fighting, Shadow merely sighed and continued frantically typing. He was searching for the portal which Dice described to him. However, as the countdown for self-destruct continued blaring, Shadow realized that even if he discovered its location, the probability of him fixing the machine and escaping into it were beyond impossible. The monitor was switching camera angles madly. Still, no sign of a portal. Or an escape route for that matter.

At last, Shadow regained his senses, and ceased searching for the impossible. Dice must have lied to him, he thought. There was nothing in this base but cobwebs and a lab experiment gone wrong. The dark hedgehog activated the security system and systematically closed off the exits from where the water creatures were.

The screen was now divided in two; one side contained the flashing security cameras, while the other had a diagram of the entire base. Searching for anything possessing Chaos DNA, Shadow quickly saw which rooms were infiltrated with the creatures. One after another, Shadow typed up the new codes, and closed each door. At last, their path to the exit was 'safe.'

Shadow glanced behind him to see both of his visitors still fighting.

"Any time boys."

The hedgehog glimpsed at the monitor to see how much time was left until the explosion. However, Shadow witnessed an odd energy signature on the diagram. It glowed with the same vibrancy and color of that from the water creatures. Though it was separate from the others; all alone and quite far from the exit. _Dice?_

"Let's get out of here, now," Shadow gasped, as a small disk was ejected from the computer. The dark hedgehog turned around, with the disk in hand, and motioned for the exhausted hedgehog and echidna to move.

"Right," Both laughed with embarrassment.

As they ran deeper and deeper into the base, Sonic could feel the sharp pain of his leg again. "Why are we going this way!?"

"Because you two had to open Pandora's Box."

The cerulean blue hedgehog raised his eyebrow. "What's up with the catch phrase?"

"How cliché?" Knuckles laughed, knowing Sonic's repetitive remarks. The echidna forgot how comical they were. However, his amusement quickly vanished when he saw Shadow stop dead in his tracks at an intersection.

"What?"

"I need to take care of something. Go on ahead. It is quite simple from here. Right, left, left, right."

"The base is going to explode in a few minutes. What is so important to take care of?" Sonic implored.

"Like you said. There's not much time. Go on ahead. I never asked for your help." Shadow coldly responded. He ran to left path, but stopped. "Nice to see you again faker."

"Ditto." Knowing Shadow's obstinate ways, Knuckles and Sonic headed right in escape of the baleful sounding alarm. "We shouldn't have left him there."

"Shadow can take care of himself. After all he survived another dimension and Dice's chaos control."

"You did too."

"Yeah but... Robotnik ordered her to keep some of us alive. Not sure why." The echidna panted, running down the hall. However, he saw immense fatigue in Sonic's face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sonic winced. "This leg is bugging me; that's all... I'll live."

Meanwhile, Shadow was headed for the energy signal he saw earlier. By memory, he followed the hallway and its insistent turns. Left, left, right, left, straight, left, right. The deeper he progressed, the darker the passageway became. The flashing red lights quickly became more frightening (not to Shadow of course). The clinking noise from his shoes and the metal floor undermined the fainting alarm. Strange, he thought. The alarm was fading. Robotnik intentionally designed the security _not_ to warn whatever facility was at the end of this hall.

He slid to a stop as he entered a humongous room with a ceiling which extended hundreds of yards upwards. Thick metal pillars were fastened into the floor and stopped abruptly in the middle of the air. Shadow gazed in wonder at the metal web above him. This chamber appeared unfinished, with the visage of a metal house under construction on the inside. High on the 'roof' of this 'house' were dozens of metal bars and ropes, among other things.

Shadow cautiously staggered across the room to see another hallway directly across from him. There were dozens of broken, sparking circuits inside a recess on the opening of the short passageway. He could see a door at the end of it. Confused, the dark hedgehog turned around. Nothing was here. Before leaving the room, he gazed upwards at the metal web one last time.

_A hand._ A gloved hand was resting limp over one horizontal pillar. She really is alive, Shadow thought. "I am going to kill her for tricking me!" However, despite his choleric reaction, he found himself slightly relieved. The dark hedgehog immediately sprinted up against the metal columns and landed on one of the bars. With his speed, climbing up vertical surfaces was simple.

Dice was resting up against a vertical pillar across from him. Her head was tilted with one arm covering her eyes. Overall, the girl looked diffident and utterly pathetic. The new clothes on her limp body had trickles of blood on them. Especially the palms of her hands. They were scraped and bloody.

"Dice?" Shadow implored, longing to hear her respond. _She must be alive... I can't fail her, or Rogue... or Maria, now!_ One agonizing step at a time, he approached her.

"Go away," She moaned, almost whispering. Her body refused to move, even her mouth seemed immobile. "This place is going to self-destruct... and destroy everything with it."

"... You did it?"

"He told me to."

"He's here!?" Shadow gasped, knowing who 'he' was referring to. However, Dice did not respond. She curled up against the pillar, with her arms wrapped around her legs. However, her black eyelids remained closed.

"We have to get out of here," the dark hedgehog stated, deciding that now was not the perfect time to discuss it.

"You can."

"I'm immortal. If I really wanted to, I could just stay and wait for the explosion, and I'd remain unharmed. You, on the other hand, are not."

"So what? I'm not... cannot go."

"Why not?"

"My orders were to destroy the base, its contents, and two of the four survivors. Since two of you are here in the building, I'll kill two birds with one stone... more like three."

Shadow remained silent, rethinking her words. She knew that Knuckles and Shadow would be able to escape, but said otherwise. The hedgehog looked at Dice again, who still kept her eyes tightly shut.

At last, Shadow came to a revelation. No matter what, Dice is physically unable to stop from obeying orders. However, she can find a loophole in them. If she truly believed that all her targets would be destroyed in this explosion, then there is no reason for her to attack Shadow now. There is no reason for her to try and escape if her mission is already complete. That's why her eyes were closed. If she saw Shadow standing there, she might try to kill him.

Realizing this, Shadow only used vague words. "So, is he here?"

"No, he's gone... to do as he pleases."

"And... what did he tell you?"

"Nothing." Of course, Dice was lying, but this remark told Shadow that Robotnik did not want his conversation disclosed. He is planning something.

"Well, what can you tell me?"

"Nothing. He won't need me soon. So there is no reason to plague anyone anymore."

"What? Why?"

"He told me so; that's all the reason I need."

"Damn it Dice, think for yourself!"

"Just leave me alone," Dice beseeched. Her voice seemed shaky, nervous. Shadow's patience was wearing thin.

"Did he tell you to stay here?"

"No, it's my decision."

"Then stop this absurdity!" Shadow yelled, grabbing Dice by the shoulders. Her eyes remained closed, but a glimmer of a tear dripped down her cheek. "You have a choice to live, so stop it already!"

"And what reason do I have to live?" Dice pleaded to know the answer. Her blue eyes slowly opened, staring through Shadow's. She quickly looked away, at the floor.

"...I ... uh," Shadow stuttered, speechless.

"I have murdered countless lives, destroyed thousands of galaxies, and... I have no control over it. I can't even commit suicide. I have to wait, and let this damn base do it for me."

"What about your revenge?"

"Pointless."

"Don't you want to make it up to everyone?"

"Who? They're all dead."

"What about your happiness?"

"Don't deserve it."

"Listen to me! Throwing your life away is an act of cowardice. You ca---"

"I am a coward. A spineless loser."

Shadow was fresh out of reasons. That motivation was what kept him going after all this time. The anger within him soon transformed into limitless pity.

"You can't throw your life away."

"It's all I want."

"But you can't. You can't always get you want." Shadow was growing more and more nervous. There couldn't be much time left.

"I never got what I want... and I deserved it. But now, I realize... this will benefit everyone."

"But it won't. Haven't you learned through all of this, through all those people you killed, that every life is precious? You can't be a hypocrite and say yours is not. I know, from experience, that anyone and everyone's death is mourned. All those years ago, when I disappeared after ARK, I thought no one cared; that it was better that way. But when I returned, everyone was overjoyed to see me. I found a little boy who looked up to me. I couldn't let him down. Even when I discovered that Sonic was dead... ...at one point, I thought I would be glad to get rid of him, erase him from existence... ...but that wasn't the case at all. Dice, you can't say that your death will benefit others."

"But with that logic, we shouldn't kill Dr. Robotnik."

Shadow sighed; there was no getting through to this girl. "But you can't let him continue killing others."

"He didn't kill anyone. It was me. All me!" At this point, Dice was quietly sobbing, tears flowing over her cheeks.

"Stop it!" Depression was one thing, but Shadow could not handle tears. He shook her shoulders violently until Dice returned to her 'senses.' Shadow squeezed her tight. "Don't listen to this madness. You can't die! I need you to stop Robotnik! You are the only one who knows what he's planning!"

"And my orders were not to let anyone know of them!" Dice gasped. Her eyes began to blink dark red. She was twitching uncontrollably. "Get away from me, Shadow!" The mentioning of the dark hedgehog's name was too much for Dice to handle. The blood coursed hot in her veins. She had to kill him, as ordered.

Shadow released her and jumped back, as the panting girl unsheathed her blade.

**A/N:** How's that guys? Better? And I updated relatively quickly too. Yay! Oh just a side note: It came to my attention (since I re-read all my chapters the other day) that I have a lot of hinting at possible romances. Just so you know, I never intended it at all. There is no love whatsoever in this story (well except some one-sided love of Amy to Sonic, but that's her personality). Of course if you guys like romance you can interpret it any way you want. I just don't want to have any love matching between Sega characters and Dice. No OC-real character stuff (just in case you misinterpreted the final scene in this chapter). So yah.


	16. Abandonment

**A/N:** I am SO glad I got chapter 14 over with! The ideas have been flowing constantly since then. So yeah. This is going to be long chapter boys and girls! Enjoy.

Chapter 16: Abandonment

Shadow carefully eyed the quivering warrior in front of him. Her eyes burned with a surging hatred, the glazed over sadness: eradicated. With each violent breath, Slice twitched her face with painful enmity. Her faded short fur spiked upwards similar to a type of goosebumps. Even the bitter laughter which was once a part of this persona vanished, leaving only remorse and malevolence.

With the blade unsheathed, Slice glided her feet into an attacking position, wasting time. After all, Slice and Dice desired to die with this base.

Meanwhile, the dark hedgehog merely blinked in surprise. He figured her transformation was imminent, but wished it happened a little later, after he learned of Dr. Robotnik's plans.

However, Shadow gave in to the truth: he was no Sonic. The cerulean hero had an uncanny ability to convince others to do benevolence, and Shadow knew this from experience. This job was for Sonic, not him. Shadow was overwhelmed with grief. That promise made on Rogue's behalf never should have transpired. The dark hedgehog knew better. He did not possess the abilities required to help Dice. So why did he make the promise? Why did he even try anymore? Maria and Rogue... he failed them already, so how could Dice be any different? Her suicidal thoughts were similar to his own, and all his reasoning failed.

However, his immediate failure was not his worst concern. For all the years Shadow spent with Dice, attempting to help her, why did he not see these suicidal thoughts before? The hedgehog was so fixated on his own promise that he was oblivious to Dice's true suffering. Now however, Shadow wished he paid more attention. Maybe this could have been nipped in the bud, but it was too late now. _No, I won't give up this time! I will not fail!!!_

"Dice, stop this!"

However, the warrior was far past reasoning. "Aaaah!" she screamed, running at the dark hedgehog, once her friend, now an enemy. "Don't ever call me that!"

She swung a hard blow in Shadow's direction but missed. The dark hedgehog laughed, without even having to dodge. However, a gust of wind ensued, thrusting Shadow into metal pillar.

On his back, Shadow gazed upwards into her eyes: cold, bitter with a lack of her infamous pleasure. "Slice," he coughed, trying one last time to reason with her. If she refused, it would be his turn to attack. "Yes, that's right. Slice. I know the name given to you. What about your revenge on Robotnik?"

The thrill of death, now gone from Slice's visage, seemed to disgust her. "You are talking to the wrong alter-ego. I obey him, not plan revenge."

"Then why are you allowing Dice to kill herself...err...and you?"

Confused, Slice merely stared, waiting for his answer.

"Because you'd rather die than allow Robotnik to use your and her powers. After all, it's your powers and only yours, correct?"

The panting grew worse and Slice refused to lower her blade, but at last she spoke, "Of course they are my powers! It's my chaos blade and I...." She stopped herself. "This is none of your business. Besides he already has them."

The dark hedgehog's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean? What is he planning?"

"You should know I can't tell you that," she said with a sinister malice, "Even if I am going to die in two minutes."

"Two minutes left already?!"

"You lost hedgehog, as always."

"No!" Shadow, on his feet, ran towards Slice, aiming for her neck. She was going to live, even by force. He could not fail his promise again. Looking into her eyes, he could see one eye blue with the other red. Despite the immense difference between each persona, both shared a sense of sorrow.

Slice sheathed her blade, kicking Shadow to the ground. "This is pointless." Her voice echoed, "Just let me die in peace. It's all I want. Robotnik already won... years ago. It's over. I feel pity on you, living forever. "

Blood trickled down the hedgehog's lip; he was now on his knees facing away. "But you don't want to die."

"How do you know what I think?!"

Shadow put all his weight on one leg, bounced backwards, and elbowed Slice in the stomach. She coughed hard, the redness in her eyes fading, "Because I felt the same way."

Everything around her turned blurry. Fading, fading...turning black. The air was difficult to keep in her lungs, every shallow breath piercing them with pain. A wave of light-headedness overcame the warrior, but she was able to see Shadow's face despite a pulsating sting in her heart.

Dice fainted on Shadow's shoulder.

A sense of relief overcame the hedgehog, as he ran out of the room, with Dice in his arms. In less than ten seconds, Shadow was back at the intersection where he separated from Sonic and Knuckles.

It was not long after heading in their direction that he found the passage completely cut off. Though the base still had a good minute and a half left, the walls were already collapsing.

Remaining calm, Shadow turned around and headed for a different area he found when in the control room.

------

Now the base was blaring and bleating uncontrollably. Every ten seconds a voice disclosed the amount of time left.

"15 SECONDS LEFT."

"I know already!!" Shadow screamed. At last he entered the room he was searching for, after traveling twenty floors up stairs. It was a hangar, filled with planes, cars, and motorcycles.

He smashed a panel on the entrance, allowing the hangar door to open. Even at the speed he could run, he could escape the diameter of the explosion. With quick thinking, he sprinted towards a red and black motorcycle.

The ceiling cracked and fell in pieces, trying to squish the hedgehog but to no avail. Frantically opening the circuitry and connecting to wires, Shadow turned on its engine. He placed Dice in front of him, with her unconsciously leaning on top of the dials.

"10 SECONDS."

Immediately upon hearing the immortal words, Shadow thrust his foot on the accelerator. It revved up, and took off, heading straight for a falling piece of wreckage. Leaning to the left and then the right, Shadow dodged each ceiling piece, with his ears nearly scraping against the pavement.

However, with Dice on top of the speedometer, Shadow had no idea if he was at an acceptable speed to exit the 100 foot high exit.

"5 SECONDS"

Now or never. Shadow sped on top of the wing of parked plane and jumped out of the hangar.

It was not enough. There was too much of an ark in the way he was falling. The explosion would envelop them. Panicking, he felt his heart race faster then the rate at which they were falling.

---------

Knuckles and Sonic were patiently waiting at safe distance outside the base. Well, as patiently as they could wait.

"Where is Shadow?!"

"And Dice? This is bad. We gotta get back in there!"

"No, Sonic!" Knuckles shouted, grabbing the anxious hedgehog's shoulder. "We don't need another death. Besides, your leg is in pretty bad shape... and they can take of themselves."

"Don't touch me!" Sonic yelled, pushing Knuckles onto the ground. "This is bull shit! What is wrong with you people! Have you all lost your consciences?!"

"Conscience?!" Knuckles jumped to his feet, glaring at the blue hedgehog. "I am being realistic! You are no help to us if you're dead! This is a different world from what you remember... things have changed you moron! Your silver lining reasoning or martyr beliefs are not going to help!"

"Oh, and you're plans have worked so far?"

"Shut up!"

"Why?! You are a coward!"

"COWARD?!!!!!! You bastard! What the hell do you know! I saw them die! ALL of them! All the blood...and the gore....the pure carnage. I wish my life was taken instead of theirs. I am NOT a coward! How dare you! You disappear for sixteen years, magically come back, and suddenly think that the same reasoning will work! There are complications you don't understand... this...this....IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!"

Sonic gaped with his mouth open, blinking constantly. "My fault?"

Knuckles merely panted with suppressed ferocity. The echidna gazed at his fists, rethinking what he said. After all these years the thought of transferring the blame to Sonic never crossed his mind. It had always been his liability. Why now? Was that how he truly felt? Was this all Sonic's fault?

"I.... I don't know. Sorry."

"No. I should be, man." Sonic rested his gloved hand on the echidna's shoulder. "I am sorry I let everyone down. I don't know what happened to make me disappear and show up here...but... I'll fix it. We cool?"

"Yeah." Knuckles smiled uneasily, as both of them knocked fists.

"So, are we going to wait for Shadow and Dice to die?"

"No. Let's go back."

Sonic returned the smile. The two of them never shared a friendship before. Never.

The two of them jogged towards the base to discover it was too late. Almost instantly a fire encased the edifice, spreading outwards. The heat and wind reached Sonic and Knuckles with immense speed and intensity.

Both were thrown onto the ground, as their fur burned from flying dustfuls of debris. Sonic threw his hands on top of his head, despite the futility of his paper protection. The boiling rocks scorched his skin and scraped his body with new cuts. His bleeding leg throbbed with pain, surging with each heartbeat. Even his eyes were pelted closed with rock fragments. The acrid pain was insurmountable, never ending. Even after the wind stopped minutes later, the heated pain remained.

Sonic lifted his head. Even with his eyes closed, the sky was so bright that Sonic could see crimson red through his eyelids. The blue hedgehog slowly opened them, revealing his green pupils. However, the glare of the edifice's immolation burned the surface of his eyes with relentless heat. Moaning, he searched the horizon for the red echidna.

To his surprise, Knuckles sat next to Sonic, sand enveloping him. The hedgehog was barely able to see several inches in front of him. "Knux?"

"Yeah?" He groaned, lifting himself on his feet. Pounds of sand and mud tumbled off his hide, revealing several cuts.

"Good, you're alive."

"Mmmnnng," he replied painfully. The echidna looked around searching for hedgehog, just has Sonic had for Knuckles. "It's so... bright."

Sonic coughed up some sand which sneaked its way down his throat as he stood up next to his re-united friend.

"Yeah. I need some punch or...some... uh forget it," Sonic shrugged. He was in too much pain to make jokes now. "Where are Dice and Shadow?"

Knuckles remained taciturn, heading towards the burning rubble.

Sonic followed, knowing that even the possibility of their deaths was something Knuckles could not think of. Suddenly, the hedgehog felt he understood Knuckles, though could not explain why. Maybe the argument they engaged in earlier made Sonic realize just how guilty, lonely, and depressed Knuckles felt. In fact, now that Sonic thought back, Knuckles always seemed to possess these traits. Especially the loneliness.

Forever bound to the master emerald, Knuckles was overprotective and choleric, but... still showed signs of envy and jealousy. The blue hedgehog wondered why he was oblivious to this for so long. If he was such a hero in everyone's eyes, even Knuckles, then why did he fail to notice these problems?

"Sonic!" Shadow yelled with his raspy voice, almost invisible. Both Knuckles and Sonic turned around to see the dark hedgehog seated on his motorcycle, with Dice lifeless.

"You made it," Sonic laughed, as he (and Knuckles) tried to run up to the machine. His leg possessed awakened pain.

"What's up with the motorcycle?"

"I needed an extra boost from the twentieth floor. So I used the jet boosters. Took me a little while to find the button for it though."

"Sweet. It even matches. Red and black. How did you find the time to do that?"

"Oh you know me. Always trying to be fashionable," Shadow said sarcastically with a very dry, annoyed tone.

Sonic gasped. "You? Made a joke?"

"It's a miracle!" Knuckles continued teasing. A wide smile was plastered on the echidna's face.

"What-ev-er," Shadow could not help but smile at the other two's laughter. Even with all their bruises and sore fatigued bodies, the three were unable to shake their light-heartedness and mutual suppressed relief at seeing each other alive. However, despite his bliss, Shadow felt awkward, as did Knuckles.

"So, what happened to Dice?" Knuckles asked, trying to stop the uncomfortable moment.

"I had to knock her out."

"Oh?"

"Heh, yeah." Shadow replied, not wanting to relive the suicidal aspect of his previous conversation. "Robotnik is planning something."

"What? He has everything already." Knuckles responded with concern.

"I didn't get the details. She made comments that didn't really make sense... in that I had no idea where they came from. Something about Robotnik having her powers. Also, over the years I've known her, she mumbled to herself." Shadow confessed. "I think that Robotnik specifically told Dice to keep you, Tails, Amy, and I alive."

"What?" Knuckles interrupted. Meanwhile, Sonic played the role of spectator, looking at Dice.

"It's hard to explain. She's hinted at a lot of stuff over the years....and today she was...frantic... surrendering. She always felt that he hadn't won yet, that there was something more to his plan. But when I spoke to her minutes ago, she hinted that it was over. There must be something more to this."

"His plan?"

Shadow gazed at Knuckles suspiciously until he remembered that the hedgehog often left the echidna in the dark about his plans and revelations. However, with Sonic here and Robotnik one step closer to whatever he was planning, Shadow possessed no more reasons to hold back.

"Robotnik wanted to get his wish to rule the world... and then Dice was forced by the master emerald to obey him in order to carry out that wish, correct?"

"I knew that already."

"Well, what I'm saying is there is something more to it."

"And that would be what?"

"I don't know. You said you saw those water creatures right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, like I said, it's hard to explain. Not to mention, Dice hasn't told me everything...and she doesn't even know everything to it but...."

".....yes?" Knuckles impatiently urged Shadow to continue.

"Uh, I don't know! This is all related somehow."

"Wait!" Sonic said. Shadow and Knuckles turned their heads, previously forgetting his presence. "It doesn't matter. Whatever his plan is, we are going to stop it. So maybe our first order of business is to recruit Tails and Amy?"

The echidna gave a confused expression while Shadow laughed.

"What?"

"You saw both of them didn't you?" Knuckles asked. Sonic nodded his head, so the echidna continued. "Tails has gone nuts! He hates Dice, Shadow, and especially me with a passion. He'd rather die than even look at one of us."

Shadow merely laughed and nodded his head. "Man, I don't know what rock you crawled under for the past sixteen years, but Tails... has well... uh... cracked. I mean, he is beyond insane from hatred!"

"We are forgetting that I am here." Sonic said with a wicked smile on his face. "He's my friend, my brother; I'll talk to him." With that, the hedgehog turned around and started walking.

Knuckles followed, with Shadow pushing the motorcycle with him. "He is not the same fox you knew."

"I don't care."

"Fine," Shadow sighed. "Let's get there quickly then. Knuckles: here, you can ride the motorcycle." He leaned the handlebars to the echidna, who graciously accepted.

"Heh, let's go!" Sonic yelled and started running. Shadow immediately ensued, easily keeping up with the wounded hedgehog's pace.

A couple hours passed of running. Knuckles decided to ease on the accelerator in order to save gas, so he quickly faded on the horizon. Knowing this, Shadow and Sonic decided to arrive at Tails' place as quickly as possible, and if the motorcycle did die then the hedgehogs could retrace their steps.

Both Sonic and Shadow sprinted beside each other, despite the hour long silences. At last Shadow was the one who broke it, "You sure your leg is going to be ok?"

"Why Shadow, are you showing concern for others? I am flattered!" Sonic laughed, but seeing the indifference in his ally's face, he grew serious. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Mm." He murmured, unable to respond, not really knowing how.

"So....."

"So....." Shadow mimicked.

"How's life?" Sonic asked. Shadow merely shook his head and then gave the other hedgehog an uneasy stare. "That bad?"

"It's none of your business."

"Yeah but... it's just you and me." Sonic stated, trying to taunt Shadow into talking.

"So?"

"Well I figured we could...talk. You know, hedgehog to hedgehog."

"Ha, talk? What are you, a girl?"

A smirk came on Sonic's face. He really was trying to be serious. "Perhaps."

"Mm."

"Mm," Sonic replied. The hedgehog decided to be honest with Shadow; it was the only way Shadow would be honest in return. Besides, what did he have to lose? "You know, I feel really guilty."

"What?" Shadow shockingly asked, slightly surprised.

"Of all the times I faced Robotnik, I always beat him. Always the hero. Always succeeding. I never really considered myself a hero though. Just having fun; playing a game. But then... I disappear for sixteen years, and everything suddenly falls apart. It's just, I don't know... I never realized so many people needed me."

"Oh. Where were you all this time?"

"I........don't know. The last thing I remember was fighting Robotnik at Tails' base and... this... light. The next thing I knew, I woke up in Station Square's ruins. You?"

Shadow forgot the uneasiness between the two of them. "I was sucked into another dimension when we faced the biolizard-thing. Darkness. That's what I remember, a suffocating darkness. It was like I was floating in an abyss for eternity. And then, after several years of that...and it felt like decades... I wound up in Robotnik's chambers. He showed me this chaos blade and said that what he did was only temporary. If I didn't retrieve the master emerald and use some of its power, then I would return to that dimension. As if I would take the risk... so yeah, I stole the master emerald from Knuckles and gave it to Robotnik. He said some incantation and I was apparently free from the bounds of the other dimension. He asked me to aid him in another big plan of his. I refused and left. So, for many years I was a loner, living by myself. Until, all of this destruction suddenly started appearing all over the world. I went to see the source of it, and found Knuckles, Rouge and some others attempting to choke the fires. Long story short, they told me about this warrior and how Robotnik was annihilating all these different worlds. They asked me to join their forces; I did, and well yeah."

"And that's when Dice showed up?"

"Basically."

"Hm."

"Hm?"

"Yeah. It seems I am getting bits and pieces of all this. So, you never knew Dice until after?"

Shadow appeared uneasy at the question. The dark hedgehog felt used somehow. As though this conversation only occurred so Sonic could learn new information. However, Shadow was tired of his suspicions. Tired of his isolation. Tired of failing his promises.

"Yeah. I met her after, and she wanted to stop him once and for all. So she would frequently give me information, but all our attempts ended in failure because of Robotnik's hold on her."

"Mm. I feel pity for her."

"Yeah," Shadow sighed, remembering the suicidal conversation from earlier.

Sensing regret, Sonic gazed at Shadow with suspicion. "What?"

Forgetting the tension and distrust, Shadow spoke, "The reason I knocked Dice out was because she wanted to die during the explosion. She would not leave no matter what."

"Oh?"

"Mm. She was really... depressed, even crying. Before I encountered her, Robotnik was there and told her to destroy the base because of 'its contents'."

"Contents? Us?"

"No, I don't think he knew we were there."

"Then what?"

"I don't know. But Dice was really, really suicidal."

"You must have felt awkward."

"Oh yeah," Shadow agreed.

"Wait... she should probably be awake by now right?"

"Yeah...and?" Sonic stopped dead in his tracks, and the dark hedgehog had to jog backwards to stay at his side. "What?"

"We left Knuckles and Dice alone!"

"So?"

"You've never dealt with a suicidal person have you?"

"Oh, and you have?!"

"As a matter of fact yes!" Sonic nervously panted, turning around in the direction of Knuckles.

-------------------

It was not long before both hedgehogs found Knuckles lying on the ground unconscious. The motorcycle was only inches away.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled in the echidna's face, as the hedgehog lifted him up by the shoulders.

"He's alive," Shadow stated calmly, lifting up a bracelet he found on the muddy earth. "I wonder what this is."

The echidna slowly opened his eyes and groaned. "Sheesh, not so close Sonic. Your breath!" Overjoyed, the hedgehog dropped Knuckles onto the soil.

"Where is Dice?" Sonic questioned. However, the echidna ignored him and snatched the bracelet away from Shadow.

"So-orry." Shadow retorted, throwing his hands in the air.

"Where is Dice?"

"Well, lemme think..." Knuckles replied, walking over to the motorcycle. He was retracing his steps. After several moments and hand motions, he pointed east, "She went that way."

Before Knuckles or Shadow could even think of telling Sonic not to follow Dice's path, Sonic was gone.

-------------

**A/N: **Woohooo! 3,666 words! Heh, sorry, the ideas have just been flowing and flowing. Please tell me what you guys think! Yeah, I am really happy today... I turned 16 last Wednesday (I mean, Nov. 3), and I got the official soundtrack for Sonic Adventure 2 (and the newest Hoobastank CD, The Reason). Yes, yes, yes! I haven't been happy for a while....I am so close to my driver's license...

Shadow Stkr: Do you want me to make it ShadowxDice? 'Cause if you want, I could.

RC: Hey man! Thanks for giving me that link to Deviant Art. Those pictures you sent me are AWESOME. But, did you get my e-mail? Yeah, I am not sure if you did O.o

Silhouette: Thank you, thank you!

Daikonran: I made this chapter way longer, just for you! (-wink-)

MysticJon15: Thanks a bunch!

Windfield: Thank you for your input! I have tried to put those lines in (and smiley face into my author's notes) but they don't seem to work. If you could tell me how, then I'd be more than happy to! Oh, and about the desperate need for reviews...what can I say? I don't have much confidence in my abilities, so I use this website as my haven... a way to get feedback, while regaining my ever fluctuating self-esteem.

Ok yeah, I know I am not supposed to make direct comments to anyone. But I felt I had to (especially since I don't think RC has been getting my e-mails). It'll be the last time. So NO reporting please!


	17. Memory

**A/N:** It's funny, I've been dying to write this chapter ALL week, but now that I am sitting down to type it…I'm at a loss. I've thought of almost infinite ways for typing the outcome of this chapter. Hm. Hopefully this will be the best one of all the scenarios.

OH!!! And, all the stuff in bold are lyrics from the song 'Out of Control' by… (Drum roll please) Hoobastank!

* * *

Chapter 17: Memory 

Dust shot from the earth behind the blue hedgehog. Sonic sprinted as fast as he could in the direction which Knuckles declared. Knowing Dice's speed, she could be anywhere by now. However, whatever she was going to do, Sonic was determined to stop her.

He continued running… running, running….

Until he heard an ear shattering scream. In surprise, he halted to a stop, sliding several feet forward. Sonic turned his head left and right, attempting to pinpoint the sound's source, but to no avail.

"Dice?" he whispered. Was he too late? The hedgehog merely stood still, despite his current state of mentality, waiting to here the noise again. However, all that could be heard was his beating heart.

"This can't be happening."

He, the blue hero, had never been at a loss before. After all, he was the hero. Right? The one who saves everyone, the one who destroys evil… the one who prevents apocalypses. Suddenly he remembered an earlier conversation with Knuckles.

"_This… this is ALL YOU FAULT!!!"_

Now standing in the middle of nowhere, basically lost and incapable of finding Dice, Sonic could literally here the words echo. It was his fault… wasn't it? If he never jumped in front of that gun, he never would have disappeared, and this world would have remained the way it used to be.

Sonic took another look around him. This is what the world looks like when he is gone. When there are no heroes left.

"This is my fault," he sighed. The hedgehog sighed again as he gazed deep into the red sky.

_The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power: power that is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos…_

"Huh?"

Sonic twisted around, looking in the direction of the voice. It was the same voice from which he heard Knuckles' comment. Immediately he sped in that direction, almost completely forgetting about Dice.

The environment appeared to be a desert with elevated plateaus, slabs of rock jutting out of the earth. The sky reflected crimson red across the plains with an eerie glow.

"Aaah!" came another outcry from nearby. The blue hedgehog ran to a plateau and then cautiously gazed around it, to see Dice.

She was punching at a slab of rock until it was nothing but pulp. Clenching her teeth, her lips began to bleed. Her strikes were hard and short, with inconsistent twitching of her fists.

"Aaaaaah!"

Soon, she began to pant from infuriation and the blood which rushed to her head. Kicking the pieces of rock which she previously pounded, Dice slumped her body over. For several moments, she stood still, allowing the air to escape through her gritted teeth.

However, Sonic remained where he hid.

Her face was red with hatred and wet with tears. Suddenly she threw her arms around herself and fell on the ground. Small outbursts of pain came from her. Snarling, she attempted to grab her sword, but stopped herself.

_The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power: power that is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos…_

Sonic was still standing motionless, but with mouth agape. He heard the incantation, and Dice must have as well, for she stopped reaching for her sword after its echo.

**I've done everything as you say  
I've followed your rules without question**

She yelled again in retaliation but did nothing. Choking with sobs, Dice slammed both her fists into the ground, forcing the dust to fly from underneath them. Erratically, she jabbed her fist into the sky, standing up. There, her body froze, stuck in that position.

**  
I thought it would help me see things clearly  
But instead of helping me to see  
I look around and it's like I'm blinded**

Moving frantically back and forth, she clutched her head, punching with no intended target. Whimpers escaped her lips, and each movement was erratic and panicked. Dice began to walk in tight circles, her hands at her sides. Suddenly, she twisted in an odd fashion, beginning to scream. Loud, long yelps of pain. Her voice was low, shaky, and… strident.

**  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
**

Dice stopped where she stood, and leaned back, head cocked towards the sky. Her arms were limp, dangling due to gravity. Her back was so tilted backwards; it was a surprise she had not fallen already. At last, she let out a scream. Not like those of her earlier ones. It was long, loud, and made Dice turn purple from lack of air. Letting out her frustration, she continued her one extensive scream, hoping to continue until there was not one atom of oxygen left in her bones.

**Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me  
'Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you**

**  
**In fact, her body lost so much air, Dice collapsed onto her knees, too weak to hold up her body. However, her shriek continued.

**I don't understand what you want from me**

It was low and quickly losing its intensity. Her head faced the sky relentlessly. At last, Dice gave up her cry and fell forward, barely saving herself from the ground with her trembling elbows.

**I feel like I'm spinning out of control**

Several moments passed, as she remained panting in that position.

**Try to focus but everything's twisted**

Sonic however, decided this tantrum had gone long enough. He walked behind her but was stopped by another outcry.

"SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADOOOOOOOOW!!!" She shrieked so loudly that Sonic pressed his gloves up against his ears to escape the noise.

**And all along I thought you would be there **

**(Thought you would be there)**

With arms in lap and back hunched over, she ceased only to release short sobs. 

To let me know I'm not alone

Closing her eyes, she whimpered, "Why Shadow?"

**But in fact that's exactly what I was  
**

"Why didn't you let me die?"

"Dice?" Sonic asked, awakening her from her angst.

"Huh?!" The warrior panicked, seeing Sonic's countenance, and crawled backwards. "What do you want?" She panted.

"Just concerned. Very concerned," Sonic replied, extending his hand to her.

"W-why?" Her voice was weak and raspy from the constant outbursts of infuriation.

Sonic grabbed her wrist, lifting the distraught Dice up. "Well you were screaming like crazy…oh and you tried to kill yourself. Let's not forget that important detail."

The two of them now stood close to each other. In fact, Sonic never realized how short Dice actually was. Not to mention, her slouching added to the illusion.

"Leave me alone," she sniffed, tears streaming. Apparently Dice was unable to recollect herself. However, Sonic refused and put his hands on Dice's shoulders. She recoiled. "Get away from me!"

She weakly punched on Sonic's chest, trying to release her anxiety, but without success. "You just don't get it!"

"I would if you'd tell me."

"I killed all those people…destroyed all those worlds."

"But it was Eggman who was controlling you."

"N-no."

"It wasn't?!"

At this point, she was hysterical and not making sense with all the tears choking her ability to talk. "I… I, I, I…I can't… I didn't mean to…I… 's all my f-ffault! The emeralds… and I was…s-sss-s-so …I, I didn't mean to! And... Sonic, he was… 's my fault!…and I..I didn't mean to…'s all my fault! My fault, my fault, my fault!"

Soon Dice was a broken record, whimpering the words 'my fault' incessantly.

Sonic clutched her shoulders, pulling her closer. "What did you say?" He glared into her eyes. "About Sonic?!"

"I did it!"

"DID WHAT?!" Pinching her, Sonic's nervousness overwhelmed him.

"I killed him! I….I, I, I…didn't mean to," she choked out, unable to look the real Sonic in the face (of course she did not realize he was the real one).

"How?"

"I was.. s-ssss-so young and the f-four …em-emeralds were th-there! I, I, I , I , I ….didn't… I didn't have control of my p-pp-powers…I didn't mean to!" Now Dice was bawling relentlessly. "I didn't mean to! If I had never killed him, then none of this woulda h-hha-happened! And Robotnik woulda never g-gotten the, the…master emerald and…and, and…"

**I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
**

"And what?"

**Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me**

However, the warrior was unable to hear his question, too focused on her crimes. "I killed him! 's all my fault, my fault, my fault!!!"

Sonic put his arms around the trembling warrior and pulled her close to him, close enough that he could rest his head on hers. Of course, her skull was shaking too much to rest on.

"Listen to me. You didn't kill him. I should have…" He paused, closing his eyes. "I should have told you this from the start. I am the real Sonic. I am alive. The last thing I can remember was… that battle oh so many years ago. It makes sense now." He opened his eyes, to see that Dice was not listening, merely crying. "You were that baby, and you sent me to the future with the chaos blade."

"Y-you lie. He's dead." She mumbled into Sonic's chest.

"What do I have to do to prove it?"

"You're wrong!! He's dead! Dead, I tell you!"

**Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you  
All of the things you've said to me  
**

"I am standing right here. I am sorry I lied before, ok?"

Still crying but not as hysterical, Dice retorted, "No. You LIE!!!! You're wrong, you're wrong, you're WRONG! It's all my fault. If I hadn't killed him, Eggman would have never captured m-….and, and would have never…"

**I may never know the answer  
To this endless mystery  
**

"Never what?! What did he do to you?"

"It's my fault."

"That doesn't matter anymore. It's done and over with. I am stuck here, and believe it or not I am the real Sonic. This world is a wasteland and people are dead, yes it's terrible, but that can't be helped. …But saying it's your fault or anyone else's is idiotic. Eggman is planning something, is he not? Well you have to help Shadow, Knux, and I!"Dice inhaled a deep breath, and when she exhaled, another fleet of tears appeared.

Sonic held her tighter, "I am sorry I lied to you. I betrayed your trust and that is something I should never have done… but whether it is your fault or not, it doesn't matter. It just doesn't anymore. So stop it. Neither I nor Shadow can help you…you have to help yourself. So what's it gonna be?"

Sighing, Dice released herself from Sonic's grasp and looked at him. Her panic was gone, but not her sorrow. She reached at her sheath to reveal the chaos emerald found in her room earlier.

"Wha--?"

"You're wrong. It's my fault and I cannot fix it." She shoved the emerald into Sonic's chest. "Just take it. You are going to need its power. And Eggman will come to you."

She turned around, grudgingly walking away.

**Where should I go?  
What should I do?**

"Wait a second!" The blue hedgehog cut her off. "You can't give this to me."

"It's what you came for isn't it? Just take it and let me die already."

**I don't understand what you want from me**

"What I came for? I came for you. Shadow and I are worried about you, and we need your help."

"If you were the real Sonic you would be smart enough to know that I can't help you."

"Ok, don't give me that bull," He snarled shoving the emerald into her hands.

"No, you take it!"

Soon both of them had their hands on the emerald, and it started to glow.

"Huh?" Sonic let go, and the shimmering green aura ceased. In curiosity, he placed his hands back on the emerald. Suddenly the scenery around both of them disappeared and they were in a metal room. "What the--?!" Again he let go, to find himself back in the desert.

Dice merely sighed. "If you were Sonic then you would know better."

**Is it a mystery?  
Is it a mystery?  
**

"What?"

She held out the jewel, and Sonic placed his hands on it, yet again. The two of them were back in the room but this time to find, Shadow and Robotnik discussing something.

"What is this?" He asked, looking at Dice, now closing her eyes.

Suddenly Shadow spat on the ground and left the room. Soon after a little girl came into through a sliing doorway. This was the same vast central room which Knuckles and Sonic found the transparent creatures in.

Suddenly Sonic knew. This was Dice's past. Somehow the chaos emeralds were reawakening it. Did Dice want him to know, but was unable to say the words out loud? Or was this forgotten to her?

The blue hedgehog continued watching the scene in front of him……

* * *

**  
**"Daddy? What you workin' on? Who's that?" Baby Dice asked, tugging on Robotnik's leg. 

The scientist grimaced at the nickname. "I am Robotnik! GET OFF... Have you finished your training?!"

"But I don' wanna…"

Eggman sighed, slapping his forehead. "You want to know what I'm working on?"

"Uh, huh!" She shook her head violently.

"Well, I am almost done with my experiments; you want to see first hand?"

Dice was too young to know what her 'daddy' meant by 'experiments' or 'first-hand' so she merely nodded.

"Ok, you'll be the first to know what it does when I am finished. Now go play or train or something!"

* * *

Sonic, gazing from afar, did not like where this conversation was heading. Suddenly the chaos emerald began to glow, and a different scene appeared before him, but in the same room.

* * *

Young Dice, now probably by the age of twelve, entered the room with Robotnik. Her voice was still rather high and nasally, but mature. Her clothes were apparently too big for her, and sagged over her shoes. Not to mention, at this time, her sheath was already pried in between her spikes. 

"What is it father?"

"Stop calling me that!" He screeched, but then recollected himself. "Stand over here please."

"Um, ok." She did as told, standing on a slightly elevated platform.

Robotnik, meanwhile, typed several things into the main computer nearby.

"What…is this?!" She nervously cried out. Suddenly, beams of light were encasing her legs and arms.

"Well the experiment may be painful, so I need to hold you down somehow."

Her voice suddenly grew shrill, and her face: pallid, "W-what?"

Robotnik pressed several buttons on the control panel, to reveal the master emerald in a metal box under the computer. "You are not as loyal as I thought you'd be. You're too… good. Well I can change that," he sneered.

"W-what are you gonna---?" Her voice trailed off with fear.

"Hehe, see those tubes filled with water? I was testing my new chemical on them to see what effect it would have, and now I am ready to officially put it to work."

"What?!" Dice suddenly began to struggle, attempting to escape her incarceration, but to no avail. Panic pulsated through her mind. No thought or words came to her, only pure, unadulterated fear.

**I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control**

Robotnik typed something unknown to Dice, and suddenly a table appeared from the ground. He calmly, and slowly, placed the master emerald upon it. Obviously, the man was torturing Dice by taking his dear time. At last, he placed an oozing black liquid on top of the emerald.

**I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
**

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She writhed in pain. Spark flew from her chains as she flailed, attempting to escape. Darkness consumed her, and her eyes grew red. The pain from the master emerald was her own.

**I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control...**

A maniacal laugh ensued from Robotnik. The pure torture gave the wicked man an indescribable ecstasy, and thus, he continued to pour more and more liquid onto the emerald.

**Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me**

"AAAAH, AAAAH!!!!!!!" Her vision grew fuzzy from the insurmountable pain. Needles stung at her body with an electrifying force. She desperately tried, but failed to catch any air in her bloody lungs. But more painful than anything else, was inside her head. It throbbed, pulsating, as if her brain would expand to the point of snapping her skull from the inside.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! S-STOP IT!!!!!!!" She shrieked and squealed in the most shrill, high pitched voice imaginable. "I T-TRUSTED YO---AH, AAAAH AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

**'Cause I don't know  
If I can trust you  
All the things you've said to me**

"It's not about trust. You are supposed to be a mindless puppet, and I will assure that is so!" Robotnik smirked. "Also…" He grabbed some pliers and snapped a shard off the master emerald. "This will ensure that no matter how far you are from me, you will always follow orders."

He did the unthinkable. He embedded the tainted shard deep into Dice's neck. A black aura with green sparks flew out of the shard, throwing the evil genius back onto the floor.

The whiteness of her eyes transformed black, and her pupils glowed blood red. Blood poured out of her eyes instead of tears as she screamed so loudly that the computer screen in front of her began to crack and split apart. She was blind to her surroundings as sparks of light emanated through her body.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! STOP I-AAHH-T, Y-YOU BASTA-AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

**And I may never know the answer  
To this endless mystery **

Where should I go?  
What should I do?  
I don't understand what you want from me

Everything was turning into a blaring red and soon into a deathly black. Fading, fading…….

**I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control  
I'm spinning out of control  
Out of control**

**

* * *

**

A/N: Ooooh, the angst! Anyway, I want to make a shout out to Shadow Stalkr. I am so sorry I misspelled your name in the other chapter! I'll never do it again. I hate it when people misspell mine (well, my real name).

Anyway yeah, you all know the drill, please review. Oh, and happy late thanksgiving!!!


	18. Memory Found, Paradise Lost

**A/N:** Apologies for the lack of updates. Life's been downright crazy! Job interviews, driver's license stuff, final exams…. Need I go on? Anyway, sincerest apologies.

This chapter is dedicated to Shadow Stalkr for a.i.m.-ing me the other night, telling me to finally update my story.

* * *

Chapter 18: Memory Found, Paradise Lost

She awoke to find a heap of rubble. Where was she? Her surroundings were unfamiliar to her… what was going on?

Dice slowly crept to her feet to notice how much taller she was. How odd. The warrior must have grown a good several feet in less than a few hours. What did Dr. Robotnik do to her anyway?

"Dr. Robotnik!" She suddenly remembered. The giant laboratory followed by all the screaming… and the sparks, the pain… and where was she? Gazing at her surroundings, she discovered a field of bodies and smoldering ash. Step after slow step, she approached the fantasy world uncasing her. This had to be a fantasy.

Suddenly she stepped on a loose rock or person, making her trip backwards. On the blackened earth, she suddenly caught a glimpse of her body.

Her bloody pants stretched across a pair of legs. But it wasn't her blood… and two limbs which were alien to her. Far longer and leaner than her legs were. Slight panting came from her lips as Dice gazed at her trembling hands. They were larger as well, with each finger wrapped around with muscle. What happened to her baby fat? Or the nimble flimsy sticks of fingers? The panic in her throat was growing. Distraught, she jumped to her feet, feeling every part of her body. Breasts. Hips… since when?

She was older.

There was no other answer to such a radical change. Reconsidering her environment, a dull pain surfaced from within. Memories flew at her with so much speed. It was like trying to collect water into a glass from a fire hose. All the flashing memories… it was coming back to her. Six years? This was far too odd. They seemed like someone else's rather than hers. Far and distant, but at the same time it possessed a keener familiar sting. How could she grow so drastically and do such crimes without the slightest sensation of experiencing them?

"Slice?" came an all too familiar voice from insider her ear. She erratically reached upwards to find a small earpiece. "Did you succeed? Is the base destroyed?"

The warrior remained silent, listening and spying for any other information, but nothing came. Instead she crushed the metal bauble into tiny pieces.

A dark pain was surfacing in her chest, trying to smother her and in pure terror, she began to run. Run through the city of the dead.

* * *

It was not long before she tripped over a little boy. His bloody panting was softer than hers, which was saying a lot. Twitching, she crawled to the bat child. A fear was in his eyes.

"What happened here?" She whispered. The boy refused to answer. The fear was transforming to a hatred which struck horror within Dice.

"You… killed them all." He gasped, holding his breath to speak clearly. Dice opened her mouth to respond but found that words failed her. "You murderer…"

"Wha- But I didn't… I would never…I…"

The boy sensed a hint of truth at the tips of her voice. His face softened, thinking of a certain black and red hedgehog. His response was more sympathetic, "But you did… and my sister is gone." Each word brought him more physical pain; he could not sustain this precision of speech.

Dice felt her eyes grow wet and soften, despite a cruel sensation deep within her, throbbing and pulsing. Suddenly a silhouette appeared on the horizon, and she was too afraid to approach the person. The warrior disappeared into the night, running desperately away.

* * *

Meanwhile Sonic watched upon an edifice nearby. That was what happened? He gazed at the real Dice nearby, clutching the chaos emerald. Even in a trance, he could see the awakened pain.

The blue hero released his grip from the emerald, and the vision slowly dissipated.

She opened her eyes with a new sense of understanding. "Well take it," she beseeched.

"But… the vision… is that what happened?"

Her face was calm with twitches of sadness. "I wouldn't know what you saw. When you touched the emerald I saw your memories and you, mine… and," she sighed earnestly, "I cannot help you Sonic."

The hedgehog was taken back. A few moments ago she refused to admit he was even related to Sonic, let alone him. However, he decided not to open old wounds.

"But... Shadow, Knuckles, and I need you to help get Eggman. I don't understand. If you saw my past just as I did yours, then wouldn't you agree to help me?"

"All it's shown to me is how tainted I've made this world become." Her eyes were glazed with sorrow but no longer with crazed suicidal notions. "Here. Use the emerald to teleport to Tails. He needs you more than ever."

"Wait a sec—"

"Recruit Amy and Tails. With you protecting the emerald, he'll come to you. I don't know what he's planning but know it has something to do with the emeralds. He said something about testing it here before actually going out with his plan." she shrugged. In astonishment at her willingness, Sonic did not bother to fight against her. He accepted the emerald from her hands.

"Well…"

Dice turned and began to walk away.

"Wait! I won't force you to help us, but…" The hedgehog was at a loss for words. Letting her leave was not the smartest idea. "Just know that if you need Shadow, Knux, or I… then we'll be there. And hopefully you'll do the same for us."

A smile crawled on her face but was hidden from Sonic. Her back facing him, Dice raised her palm as a sign of acknowledgement. Slowly changing into a sprint, she ran off.

Sonic merely watched her transform into a dot on the horizon. With the look on her face, he sensed that she was not endangering herself anymore. Besides, it probably would not be best for her to join up with everyone else.

He smirked to himself, "She'll show up when we need her most. Just wait and see." With that, he yelled 'chaos control' and was off to meet with Knuckles and Shadow.

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, so it was shorter than it usually was, but I figured I'd take Shadow Stalkr's advice. Is this much better? Just curious… I'll try to improve for later chapters, but speaking of which, that probably won't be for a good deal of time. Things as I said before have been hectic, and to be honest, I don't know when they'll calm down. So, I'll update as soon as I get the chance. 


	19. A Splash of Orange and Pink Paint

**  
A/N: **Wow, only a couple reviews. Heh, I guess I deserve that for not updating very frequently and making the past couple chapters very sappy...and the disappointment of last chapter. Well all three shall be no more! Life here may be accelerating at an exponential rate… but I think I will have some spare time coming up. Dice is out of the picture…well you'll see. And hopefully this chapter's quality will be better.

But I'd like to dedicate this chapter to _Zeo the Other One_, _RC-sonicCRAZED, and Shadow Stalkr._ Thanks a lot for every last word of your reviews. To be frank, I was strongly considering stopping this story about a week or so ago. But I can't quit now (especially since we're close to the end). Thanks all three of you for your ability to type and press the 'submit review' button!

Also, I have more lyrics from another song in this chapter. "Remember Me." You guys should know me enough by now to know that another Hoobastank song was coming.

**

* * *

**

Chapter 19: A Splash of Orange and Pink Paint

Following a blinding light, Sonic appeared in front of Shadow and Knuckles. One was pacing in circles impatiently while the other leaned up against the motorcycle now with an empty gas tank. Knuckles clutched his fist tight as Sonic could see a string flowing out of it.

Not thinking much of the encased trinket, the blue hedgehog sauntered over to Shadow, who stopped pacing upon seeing the hero. The ground crunched beneath his shoes as Sonic halted in front of Knuckles' lowered eyes.

"Well?"

"It's kind of a long story," Sonic shrugged, holding the chaos emerald tightly.

"…and?"

"Basically, she was depressed; I comforted her…etcetera, etcetera. Though afterwards, she refused to return here and help us, but instead… she gave me this," Sonic raised the emerald to Shadow's stunned eyes.

At this point, Knuckles rose to his feet and safely tucked away his trifle. "… A chaos emerald? But, I thought they disappeared after Station Square's-"

"But where is she?" Shadow ferociously interrupted.

"She left. Quit. Gone." Sonic shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal. She'll be back."

"You keep telling yourself that," the dark hedgehog snorted, hiding his concern for her safety.

"Anyway," Knuckles interrupted. "Maybe we should get back to business?"

"Of course. Let's go." The blue hedgehog extended out the emerald as Shadow and Knuckles placed their fists on top it. "Chaos control!"

* * *

All three heroes silently stood in front of a pathetic excuse for a home. It was the same shack Sonic first laid his eyes on in this wasteland. Though at the time, in many ways, the hedgehog knew the angered fox and Tails were one and the same. Deep within, Sonic knew he would have had to return here.

At last Sonic stepped forward and the other two followed suit. Before he could knock on the door, out came Tails and Amy. Both were armed with enough artillery to supply a small army. They must have heard their footsteps and thought them to belong to a stranger or enemy.

However, Sonic continued to walk forward into the light despite the cruel stares and aura of hatred around Tails. Halting with an air of dignity in front of the self-proclaimed army, Sonic smiled weakly.

"Hey."

Amy's gun clattered on the floor as a gasp escaped her. Frozen, she felt the pounding of and fear in her heart. This had to be another trick… right? Tails, however, took several seconds of thought before grudgingly releasing his aim on the hedgehog.

"Well, well…" Tails snarled, "I should have known."

**  
I stand here face to face  
With someone that I used to know  
Who used to look at me and laugh**

"Known what?"

"That you were alive and deserted us all." At this point Shadow and Knuckles stood beside the blue hero in retaliation and anger at Tails' comment. "And only to conspire with these traitors."

"Who's the one who decided to escape through a boat!" Knuckles sneered. "If you had remained at your damn post…!"

"Well if we had better leadership, then it wouldn't have come to that battle, SIR!"

"Bull!" Shadow joined the fight. "If you were in charge, then we'd have died decades ago!"

"And look who's talking Mr. Joy-Ride."

"I was giving support to a different base no thanks to your sorry ass!"

"And look what came of it."

"Shut up!" added Knuckles, "You're the same little helpless child you always were but now with enhanced guns."

"And the only one with the knowledge to handle them, I might add."

"Well let's not forget your weepy sidekick," both Knuckles and Shadow retorted. "What a great team you have." At this point all three characters were clenching their teeth in enmity and barely restraining themselves from a fist fight.

Sonic stood idly by in utter shock at the ferocity in all their voices. The only one remaining silent was Amy, who was longingly gazing into Sonic's eyes. However, her stare no longer possessed passionate love, but instead a forgotten one.

"At least mine is still alive. And I didn't lose the children!" Tails yelled through his teeth towards both the echidna and hedgehog.

Obviously both comments struck hard, and neither Knuckles nor Shadow were able to continue the argument.

"Ok, that's enough." Sonic sighed, almost forgotten by all three characters. "I'm here to ask for your assistance, Tails."

"My assistance? After what you did!"

**  
But now he claims  
That he's known me for so very long  
But I remember being no one**

"And what was that?"

"You traitor!"

"What did I do?"

"You were hit by a laser, thought dead, and thus weren't there to kiss his baby bruises," Shadow mockingly cooed. Tails thrust a look of disgust towards the dark creature before him.

But, before the fight could continue where it left off, Sonic beseeched, "We need your help. It's about time that you… all of you… get along and kick some evil. Robotnik is planning something and all we have is this chaos emerald that Di—" Suddenly Knuckles elbowed the hedgehog and switched an ominous glance.

**I wanted to be just like you  
So perfect, so untouchable  
Now you want me to be with you  
Someone who used to have it all**

"I'd rather die than help anyone who worked with that… thing!"

"Dice is NOT a thing!" Shadow, Knuckles, and Sonic screeched in unison.

Regaining his composure, Sonic exhaled. "We need you help, Tails. Please. We cannot do this alone…"

"You can't do it alone? That's all you've ever been about. Doing it your way; leaving everyone in your damn dust!"

**  
Do you remember now  
You acted like you never noticed me  
Forget it**

"What are you talking about?"

"He's just crying because no one was there to hold him," Shadow continued to mock, but was halted by Sonic's wave of the hand.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you Tails."

"It's too late for that."

**  
Cause the gone has come around  
And you're not allowed to be a part of me  
**

**Did you know me?  
Or were you too preoccupied  
With playing king in your small kingdom  
**

**And now the real world  
Has stripped you of your royalty  
And from your kingdom you're evicted  
**

"Too late? Can you just stop and listen to yourself? You've pushed everyone away from you," Sonic motioned towards his allies, "And allowed this immense hatred to build up within you. You really are a child if you can't come to grips with what has happened."

**I wanted to be just like you  
So perfect, so untouchable  
Now you want me to be with you  
Someone who used to have it all  
**

Tails could feel the fury well up. He clutched Sonic by the throat and lifted the hero off the ground. Fire was in his eyes.

**Do you remember now  
You acted like you never noticed me  
Forget it  
Cause the gone has come around  
You're not allowed to be a part of me  
**

However, Sonic remained calm. His green, nonchalant eyes merely gazed down into Tails'. Without speaking, Sonic sent his message far too clearly. The fox lowered the hedgehog with remorse.

"Fair enough."

**Part of me  
Part of me  
Part of me  
**

**You're never going to be a part of me  
You're never going to be a part of me  
You're never going to be a part of me  
You're never going to be a part of me  
You're never going to be a part of me  
You're never going to be a part of me  
**

**Do you remember now  
You acted like you never noticed me  
Forget it  
Cause the gone has come around  
You're not allowed to be a part of me  
**

**Part of me  
Part of me  
Part of me**

Tails could hear his voice swimming in his head. "Are you really going to let this plague you for the rest of your life?"

"It's time for some payback." Tails snorted, throwing his gun over his shoulder. Amy smiled gratefully, but remained still.

"I'm coming with you," She whispered.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, there you go. Another chapter guys, and I _will_ finish this story. The ending is relatively close. 


	20. Hunt for a Ghost

**A/N:** Yeah, I'm back. Wow, I'm on chapter twenty (not to brag or be rude). I never thought it would get so long, but hey, it's cool with me. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Chapter 20: Hunt for a Ghost

It did not take long for Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow to continue their bickering. Constant accusations were thrown back and forth like a grenade set to explode in the next moment. No matter how often Sonic would separate them, the fight resumed exactly where it left off, but with a stronger edge of hatred. The blue hedgehog suddenly gained the responsibility of a babysitter.

All five began walking aimlessly in the abyss of a city. With the insistent squabbling, Sonic completely forgot about the flow of time. The clocks were frozen in place as the fox, hedgehog, and echidna opened old wounds. Sonic only wished for their arguments to stop, so that normalcy would return but alas, was not the case. Within each of them was paranoia, pain, and an edge of darkness which clung to their past and clutched their hearts to the point of an infinite dull pain. Pent up within them for so many years, even hell could not prevent the hatred from being unleashed upon each other.

After an eternity of screaming, Tails abruptly halted in front of a trap door amidst the ashen rubble. "Someone has been here," he whispered, cautiously in case said stranger was still within earshot.

"Um, that must have been me," Sonic quickly added. "I think I remember this place. I went down there when I first wound up here."

"So, you are certain that no one else could be down there?"

"It's not like there's anyone left alive to be able to sneak around," Shadow muttered under his breath, arms crossed. "What's so important about this place anyway?"

"Well, unless you have lost all your brain cells and memory, this is one of the entrances to the underground base. I can start up one of the computers in there and use the chaos emerald to track down Eggman."

"What are we waiting for!" cried out Knuckles in mid jump as he plummeted down the hole. Shadow and Tails immediately followed, but Amy paused and Sonic waited for her to go inside.

"What's wrong?"

She shook, almost in fright of hearing another sound, but quickly regained her composure, realizing who the words originated from. "Nothing. Just thinking."

"About?"

"It's nothing of importance. And time is not on our side anyway." She responded, not once looking at the blue hedgehog. "Time never is."

"We'll see," was all Sonic could say. Her behavior was peculiar and worried the blue hedgehog. However, before he could ask, Amy slid down the trap door.

* * *

Darkness filled the catacombs, smothering all and any hope. Hours went by as none of the characters made a sound. Even Sonic secretly wished Tails' self-picked fights would resume. However, everyone seemed to be consumed with their own demons and ghosts.

Tails refused to think about his personal problems. Or how he was responsible for his own pain. Every time his memory or the thought of guilt slipped into his mind, he forced it out as quickly as possible. There was nothing left to hold on to. Tails lost his will to live long ago. And yet, the fox could not pinpoint why he remained here. He was so lonely. Was it revenge or hatred that kept him going? Stuck in ever-growing darkness, Tails could not remember the source of all his frustration. Sonic and the others were scapegoats, nothing more. The fox slowly realized he was an empty shell. He was lost in a sea of darkness and revenge… and there was no turning back.

Amy was not holding off any better. Knowing Sonic was alive and in her presence made her heart flutter. Walking inside her 'home' of several years reminded her of the tears, the desires, and the regret. She suddenly recalled how Tikal had slapped her to her senses for what felt like an eternity ago. Tikal. Amy shut her eyes, forcing her tears at bay. That echidna was a blessing and should have lived… instead of her. In fact, all the women in the fight should have survived except her. Cream, Tikal, Sally… everyone. They were so brave, never shedding a single tear, and here Amy was, still alive, and weaker than ever. And it was true. Amy knew now more than ever the depths of her weakness. Her love for Sonic was abandoned after she embraced despair. And now, Amy no longer desired to be with the blue hedgehog, in terms of boyfriend-girlfriend. She just wished some of his bravery would rub off on her.

Knuckles caressed a green bracelet with his thumb, thinking about the time spent in this dungeon. His memories flooded over him with an unstoppable force. The guilt of his failure was fighting to obtain control of the echidna's thoughts and it appeared Knuckles was losing. Tears streamed silently down his cheeks, and he was infinitely thankful that the tunnels were too dark for his allies to see him.

The bracelet glowed dimly and Sonic barely saw it. "Hey Knux? What is that?"

"Nothing," he weakly replied, hiding the tears.

"Ah, come on. You can tell me."

"No."

"Knuuuuuuuuuuuuckles…." However the echidna ignored Sonic from there on out, and the blue hedgehog decided to give his curiosity a rest. Suddenly he crashed into Shadow who had stopped walking entirely. "Shadow?"

Shadow thought of Rogue. The little boy entrusted his life to the dark hedgehog. And he failed him. He failed Maria. He failed Roxie, Rouge, Dice… everyone. His only chance of atonement involved this final mission: to stop Robotnik. He promised Rogue he'd save Dice, and he failed miserably so far. His last chance, the very last one, was screaming at him. He could not fail. He would not fail.

Being the perfect life form that he was, Shadow could see in the dark, gazing at the endless branches of rooms, until at last he came across the door he was looking for.

"Shadow?"

"Huh?"

"Watch where you're going."

"What do you mean?" He responded, looking intently into the room.

"Never mind." Sonic sighed in defeat. "Hey," he whispered, barely audible, "Do you know what's up with Knuckles' bracelet?"

Absent-minded, Shadow continued staring into nothingness and responded in a detached tone of voice, "He gave it to Rouge as a birthday present about two years after you disappeared. The glowing green center gem is a shard of the master emerald. After Station Square was destroyed, Knuckles found Rouge dying and she returned it to him."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I saw her give it to him," he numbly added, walking into the room after debating whether or not to do so. Sonic sensed Shadow move, and curiously followed.

"What is this place?"

There was no response.

"Shadow?"

A small light clicked on overhead and Sonic could see Shadow holding onto the chain attached to a light bulb.

"Shadow? What is this place?"

However, the hedgehog never heard a word from Sonic. Ceremoniously Shadow took out a tattered photograph folded underneath his glove. He placed it on top of a rusty bunk bed, which should have expired and fallen to the ground ages ago. Grudgingly Shadow made his way across the room, gently touching and dragging his left hand across the wall.

Realizing the importance of this room to Shadow, Sonic refrained from nagging. He instinctively stood beside the dark hedgehog and then noticed the deep sadness emanating from his face.

"This… was Rogue's bedroom." Sensing confusion, Shadow added, "Rouge's son. He died in my arms."

"Sorry."

"Don't be." Shadow at last came across the bat's desk and saw an illustration of Rouge, Roxie, and Shadow together. The dark hedgehog gingerly put his fingers onto it, and after a good five minutes, released his grip on it. "I came here to let it go. I made a promise that I will fulfill, but after that… it's time to move on."

"Heh, right. Let's catch up to the rest of the guys. I'm not sure if Knuckles is going to hold out without your verbal support."

"Mm."

* * *

The two hedgehogs sauntered through the halls, not saying another word to each other since exiting Rogue's bedroom. With their jogging, they reached the others within seconds.

They had already reached the main computer, and Tails was underneath it, re-wiring the circuitry. "About time you two showed up," Knuckles laughed, truly happy not to be alone with Amy and Tails.

"Got it online! Glad there's still enough power for the computer to run."

"Nice work. So what do I do with the chaos emerald?" Sonic asked, the one soul who touched the emerald since Dice gave it to him. He refused to let it fall into anyone else's hands after being given the responsibility to protect it.

"Place it here, in this recess. The wiring should hook up to it automatically. Since Robotnik has the master emerald, and probably the rest of the chaos emeralds, it will be easy to track down which dimension and time period for that matter he's in."

"And then I could use chaos control to get us there." Shadow lowly responding, adding to the plan.

"And then we're going to give Eggman what's coming to him," Sonic laughed.

"Hm, odd."

"What is it?" asked Amy nervously, the only three words she had said to Tails.

"Eggman is here, in this dimension. At his old base…"

"But that was destroyed nearly two hours ago," Shadow gasped.

"Well, he's there now…. And so is Dice."

* * *

**A/N:** Wow, we really are getting close to the ending. I had the ending in mind before I even started this story, and then filled in the blanks leading up to it… I figured the ending would come within the next five chapters. But I think it might be the next three. Heh, we'll see. Might be longer. Depends. 


	21. Time for Vengeance

**A/N:** Well, upon seeing that RC updated his fic, I guess I decided to write this chapter. Not to mention I don't have to work today. Hahaha! This is the first real weekend that I've had in a long time. And you all should be honored I spent it writing this for you! Ok, not really. I've been overdue anyway.

* * *

Chapter 21: Time for Vengeance

Smoldering ash and smoke rose from the rubble. Eyes half-open, Dice surveyed the area. The destruction, gore, and especially the chaos was exactly the same as those battlegrounds she dwelled in past experiences. Exactly the same. Sighing, the creature scraped her gloved hand across an erect piece of wreckage while trudging to the center of the destroyed base.

Was this all she knew? To fight? To destroy? It certainly appeared so. Searching deep in her memories, Dice failed to recall the appearance or even the fragrance of a flower. The beauty of a sunset or the lit painted scene of a city's skyline vanished from her mind, not that the warrior remembered enjoying such sights.

A bitter smile crawled onto her face. "This is what I'm meant for. To be a faithful servant of a megalomaniac. Nothing more. Why fight this anymore; I can't even enjoy the freedom I have at this moment. I'm wasting it. For all I know, Eggman could be right behind me for new orders and missions."

And speak of the devil. "More like your early demise," laughed the mentioned scientist. Before Dice could contemplate or even process the words, the warrior was pinned to the jagged and erect wreckage with what felt like a metal rod. Only after coughing up blood did she notice the surging pain from her shoulder and chest.

The light around her was swirling in a torrent of color, blurring the red and blue silhouette before her. Blinking rapidly, Dice failed to escape the intoxicating dizziness clouding her head. A dull crimson dulled the edges of her vision as the warrior suddenly understood the depths of her situation.

"E-Eggman…" She hissed, her eyes transforming instinctively to a scarlet blood red. Upon doing so, her senses grew more acute, allowing her to gaze down at her shoulder. A thick transparent stick or pole pinned her tightly to the wreckage as her own blood dripped onto the ground, which Dice was currently suspended from. Her toes floated inches from the accursed earth, so close that it was mocking her. Allowing her eyes to follow the spike, looking surprisingly similar to water, Dice at last came across Robotnik's ominous countenance.

Gasping inaudibly, Dice whimpered, "Your arm! But how-how'd you..?"

Grinning menacingly, he applied more pressure upon the transparent substance, which so happened to be his arm. It stretched across several feet of air and transformed into a sharp point, now penetrating Dice's skin. Laughter came over him unexpectedly, as his other arm suddenly took the same shape. Zipping through the air, it snatched Dice's chaos blade from its sheath and returned to Robotnik's side.

"I have harnessed your powers."

Wincing at the sting of her growing wound, Dice found it incredibly difficult to hear the words escaping his lips. Her head, despite suddenly feeling as heavy as many pounds of armor, slowly raised eyelevel to him. "But, I can't d-do that."

"Of course not." He snarled wickedly, strolling towards her. As he walked, sprouts of blackened leaves and darkness spread from his feet in waves. "I had to tap into Chaos' to obtain yours. He merely protects the chaos emerald while you…" He trailed off, possibly re-thinking how many details he should disclose. Closing his eyes and releasing a small chuckle, he continued, "It won't matter since you'll die soon. All you need to know is that your powers are now mine, and I intend to rebuild the universe which you destroyed in my likeness."

Frustration and confusion welled up within the warrior. Even with her conflicting personalities battling each other within her body, both agreed Robotnik could not steal her strength. With fire raging in her eyes, Dice sneered in a tone shrill enough to make the strongest man shudder, "Give my blade back!"

Now it appeared laughter and hysteria clutched Robotnik harder than any other emotion. His sickening voice reverberated across the wreckage which was once his laboratory. Twisting his arm clockwise, he deepened her wound. "I need that blade to claim what is mine. Can you not see my new powers? What I can create? I can create a living world of darkness, instead of your death and destruction. You have done your job, and now I can fulfill mine."

The pain was smoldering her, and Dice discovered it increasingly impossible to see his wicked face. Despite the relief of his horrid visage, she knew this meant her life was draining away. That was what she wanted…was it not? However, as her mind considered the question in a panicked fashion, Dice finally managed to smile.

No. She did not want to die this way. Not now; not here. Her eyes dulling, the warrior understood all too well the difference between to want, and to need. She wanted to live, but did not need to so considering her lack of purpose. Sonic would stop Robotnik; her existence only hindered the success of everyone else.

"Sonic will stop you," she whispered so softly the evil man failed to hear her. Succumbing to the inevitable, she allowed the darkness to consume her. Everything was fading…

At last releasing its clutches from Dice, Robotnik's arm returned to its previous form, and the man indifferently watched the warrior collapse onto the floor. Wickedly grinning, he gazed at the wonders of his new weapon and then retreated from the scene.

"Now to test this power on the fools who actually thought they had survived on their own strength. But no, I ordered them to stay alive for this moment. To let them see the horrors of my power. And once this field test is complete, on to the rest of my enslaved lands…"

* * *

"Why would he be at the old base?" pondered Sonic, rhetorically, knowing fully well that none of his allies could guess the answer. Looking at each other, all five of the creatures remained silent. This was it. Time to seek revenge. Time to rectify all the evils which had plagued this world for over a decade.

"What are we waiting for?" Interrupted Shadow, snatching the chaos emerald from the computer. "Dice is over there. And so is Robotnik! Stop wasting time…."

Nodding his head, Knuckles placed his over-sized glove onto the emerald. Sonic immediately followed suit. "Time to be a team again guys!"

Genuinely smiling, Amy touched the pile of hands, weighted down by the guns and ammo wrapped around her belt. "Time to reclaim our lives."

The four companions gazed at Tails, smiling earnestly. He frowned for several moments but at last lightly placed his hand on top of everyone else's. "Whatever."

"Chaos Control!"

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry guys, I thought this chapter would be much longer. Oh well. It's short and sweet. 


	22. Crawling in the Dark

A/N: Hey everyone! Yeah… I'm really ashamed that I haven't updated in over two months. Thanks for the reminder guys. It's funny, but it has been so long I had to re-read the past three chapters to remember where I was and how I wanted to continue. Hehehe, well… hurray for summer!

* * *

Chapter 22: Crawling in the Dark

A pitter patter of water continuously blared in Dice's ears. However, it did not feel like a sound. The noise was mute, intangible. Almost a fantasy, though her subconscious knew the clatter was there. Whether it was in her head or real, the water pattered one drop at a time. Slowly, repeating over and over and over again.

Her body was completely numb, not feeling the slightest sensation. She could not feel the earth below or the cold air which once cut deep into her skin. Wind no longer blew through her fur, washing her doubts away. At least, she could not feel any wind. Maybe the gentle breeze was there, whispering, attempting to awaken the fallen warrior. But, she could not hear it. Only water.

_Plop, plop._

The wounds which she knew were lethal did not disturb her thrashed body anymore. Blood may still be seeping out her chest and pouring on the grey soil, but she was unsure. Nothing seemed real anymore. Her soul was detached from her body. Completely numb. Emotions and sensations which once plagued her now seemed far, far away. All that remained was a ghostly sound of liquid.

_Am…I dead?_

The thought rang through the empty abyss, which the warrior now rested. It did not even seem to come from Dice, herself. A question, commonly asked during a life-death experience. Is this what the darkness was? Was she on the verge of death? Her mind waited for an answer to echo in return. However, nothing came to console her doubts.

Even the incantation. The words, which constantly tormented her. Ordering her to fight, to kill, to destroy. Telling her to go on. To live. To exist. Gone. Fading into nothing. As each droplet softly echoed, the words weakened, disappearing. All that Dice knew and solely based her life on was vanishing, waning to a point of nonexistence. Emptiness. That was all her mind recognized. An empty shell filled with no purpose. The repetitive drops dripped into her mind and then seeped out, along with her memories, her hopes, her dreams. Even her heart and soul, her will to continue living. Fading, fading…

_Plip, plop._

A translucent jewel of blue trickled amidst the black ominous void. She saw a shade of blue: shiny, crystal clear, blue drop in front of her, leaving small blue rings. Upon trying to focus her thoughts on the unknown substance, the droplet faded, and she suddenly doubted the ripples existed, thus considering the loss of her sanity. Though somehow she knew the color was there. Her mind's eye distinguished sparkles of blue resonating across the darkness. The rings grew in size and number, lighting the shadows, revealing a cobalt silhouette.

_Sonic?_ She thought. This time, she knew the voice came from her mind. The echoes sounded familiar, intangible and yet recognizable.

_Nay. Thou art more ignorant than thou thinketh. He shall die, as will they._

The numbness remained, but free thought soon awakened the fallen warrior. A sensation of weakness pulled down on her with immense weight, giving the appearance that Dice was bowing, face first, on the ground to this entity in front of her.

_Wrong, you're wrong!_

_Nay child. They shall, unless though understand thy destiny and purpose. Haha. Thou do not remember. It was thou who sent Sonic to this time. It was thy accident. And now, thou must live with thy self and his death. He shall die unless thou come to realize…_

More alive, Dice was surprised that this silhouette was responding to her thoughts. Both of them obviously were not speaking a loud. It was more of an ethereal connection floating between them. She was busy in thought, denying the figure's earlier statement. Sonic and the others could not die. …Could they? The blue hedgehog was her hero. He would not fail her, or anyone else.

A hero. The term was meaningless now. Floating in an infinite emptiness, nothing seemed important anymore.

_Who… are you?_

_Hahaha. Thy real question is: who art thou?_

_Wha-?_

_Who are you?_

…_I am Dice! Of course I know who I am!_

_Nay child. What art thou? What is thy purpose? Thou cannot save anything if thou cannot save thy self._

_My purpose! I thought I once knew but… now I'm not so sure. _

_Of course thou know. Answer me, what is thy purpose? _

_I will blindly dedicate and sacrifice everything for just a second's worth so that… so I can obey my master. _

_Nay, nay child. That be ridiculous and without true purpose. Dedication and sacrifice has no meaning without thy understanding. Thou thinketh thou art a servant… a slave? Working for thy master emerald? _

Dice gasped at the silhouette's response. The figure laughed, echoing through the darkness. It began to fade, slowly disappearing on the horizon.

_Wait!_

Dice began running, chasing the figure. Despite the faith in herself that she was real, she doubted she was actually running. This... place did not feel real, like a nightmare, and yet somehow she _knew_ this was not a dream and that person understood something she did not. If she was not a slave, then what was she?

_Wait! Who am I? Tell me! All those years of destruction… was it unnecessary? Wait!_

The abyss, stretched for eternity. Emotions slowly crept back into her heart. Which sensation was it? Fear. Fear that she would lose this voice. Fear that all those deaths… were her fault. Fear that… Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles…would die.

_Ha ha. Nay child. Thy true question be not 'who art thou,' but 'WHAT art thou?'_

The voice echoed and then vanished. The water… the pattering noises… the blue silhouette…all disappeared. Now, she was alone but refused to stop running.

_Wait! Please...What AM I?_

Tears trickled down her cheeks and reflected across the shadows, replacing the old droplet noises, with a new intangible sound.

Dice sprinted forward, until she tripped over from an immense force. A searing pain leaped on her leg. A feeling? A sensation? Here, in this abyss? She turned on her back to see black ooze crawling up her limb.

_Aaaaah! Ah! Aaaah! _

She banged it on the ground, inching backwards. Flailing her legs altered nothing. The darkness, the evil continued rising without a sign of resignation. Pure fear and panic smothered her, as she shrieked hysterically.

_Aaaah! Not again… I won't give up my sanity this time! Let go you bastard! _

She screamed in her mind, echoing constantly. A twinge of terror bit at her heart, thinking her red-eyed alter-ego would come to claim her as a result of this evil ooze. Her horror nurtured the darkness eating away at her legs. Dice fell back, her head hitting the darkness.

At that point, fear drove her to think the unthinkable. She could ask her darker side for aid. Hysterically waiting for the incantation, she desired with extreme force to escape. Every time those words resonated in her mind, it gave her renewed strength. She longed for true courage and wished determination would return to her. Though, the gift of power meant sacrificing her freedom. All those years without her own thoughts to guide her, were unbearable. If the darkness consumed her, the evil entity would return anyway. However, at this point in time, all that mattered was to escape the darkness, at any cost. But, was that what she truly wanted? To live with ultimate power and without fear at the cost of freedom?

Another silhouette could be seen in the way that her head lay tilted in the darkness. A red outline carved out its shadow. Dice desperately turned on her side, sprinting to her feet. The evil ooze dragged her down with extreme force. She clutched her thigh, hoping the evil would stop growing. Tugging constantly, inching forward. At last, she recognized the black shape.

_Shadow! Please Shadow, help me! Shadow, Shadow!_

Panting hysterically, the sensation of her pulsing heart edged back into her body. Dice tripped forward, and soon began to crawl towards Shadow's silhouette. Digging her nails through her gloves and into the darkness underneath her, Dice yanked herself forward. The darkness was above her hips now.

_Shadow! Don't leave me! Please, help me!_

The voice of her mind trailed off and continued shaking. The air in her lungs had troubles escaping due to a lump in her throat. Her voice was reduced to a whisper: raspy, weak, trembling. Quivering…

_Please…Shadow don't… please…don't leave me…_

The red lines outlining Shadow's familiar spikes evaporated, whisping away from her into nothingness. Tears welled in her eyes. Shadow told her that he would destroy the evil inside her. Now, when she required his aide the most, the hedgehog vanished, as if forsaking her.

In defeat, she stopped crawling, in curling into a ball, letting the evil consume her. Sinking, sinking into the shadows. The pain constantly gnawed at her sides. Slowly, the evil ooze crawled over her face, masking her eyes. Why would her torment not end? Her past, her duty, the future of her friends haunted her. All consumed and twisted with death. The guilt was horrible enough, why did this evil have to devour her now, when her final moments were nigh?

The thought of guilt sparked in her mind. True, she always felt horrible and remorse over her actions for the past events, but she never _truly_ felt guilty. Eggman was her scapegoat for so long; it was his fault. He tricked her. The past had never been her fault. Or at least, those words were what she told herself to keep going. However, he forcing her did not retain any meaning now. The fact remained: she murdered the innocent. All of them. Every last one.

Her denial was over.

_It was my fault. No one else's. My hands; they are too stained with blood to possibly give me the privilege of aide. No one will help me now… after all I've done…_

The darkness crawled over her. Seeping into her eyes and mouth, suffocating her. All she wanted now was for everything to stop. Her heart was longing for the grave. Without her, the universe would after long last, breathe easier.

The ooze enveloped Dice, but suddenly began to sting with immeasurable pain.

_Aaah!_

The thoughts scattered and evaporated. All that remained was instinct and panic. She flailed back and forth, managing to release her head and arm. Pain bit at her sides. Screaming and panting, Dice tried to shake free. Until, a bright light, glowing intensely, surged through her hand. It shot out her palm, and pierced the darkness. It recoiled in pain, releasing Dice, only to throw her far across the abyss.

She screamed, looking at a chaos emerald which painfully poured out of her palm. Standing to her feet, she nervously shook the glowing hand, and tripped backwards. The shadows beneath her cracked like glass, as she looked at the dropped chaos emerald. Six other emeralds were positioned around her body, which were now glowing an eerie green. **_  
_**

The shadows continued cracking apart and then shattered beneath her.

_Aaaah! Ah, aaaaaah!_

She fell. Falling, falling into darkness. The pain subsided, but not the fear. It felt like an eternity, plummeting farther and deeper into the shadows. Still, the incantation did not come. It refused to help her when she needed it, just like everyone else…she deserved it. .

At last she reached the bottom of the fall. Smashing into her body. Her real body. Not an imitation or a fantasy. The shock of the fall awoke her genuine eyes. Several moments passed until they focused enough for Dice to see around her.

She found herself limp, inches above the blood-stained earth. Her body was crushed and weak, elevated by a sheet of metal wreckage. She now knew for certain; she was bleeding. Immensely for that matter. It smothered her fur, her face. It trickled over her nose and dripped one drop at a time on the soil.

Gravity pulled down on her. Compressing, pounding, in hopes that it would make Dice and the ground one entity. Fatigue suffocated her numb body. It was impossible to look straight ahead due to the pure exhaustion on her eyeballs. She gazed down, into the puddle of blood.

A reflection could be seen within its depths. A face of utter sorrow. The complexion was pale, weak, muddy. Huge black circles enclosed the countenance's eyes. Blue eyes. A pool of emptiness, seeking an end. The black ears flopped down, for they were too frail now to stand on their own. Overall, her bloody face was immensely wilted in a gradual fatigue from loss in confidence and lack of purpose and others' love.

_Is this how pathetic I have become?_

Her eyelids gradually twitched closed in resignation, allowing the darkness to consume her again. However this time, Dice was aware of her location, and could still feel the weight of gravity on her. The weight of guilt and deception clouded her mind, until at last the blue silhouette returned to Dice.

_Thou thinketh thou have seen enough torment, yes?**  
**_

Dice ignored the comment, tired of the voice's riddles and idiotic accent.

__

So when and how will I know?

_Know enough torment? Nay, child. Thy life be consumed in deceit and death, yes? Though, thou can never see enough to comprehend. Never. Thou cannot understand till thy identity be made clear. Haha. Thou still doubt thyself. Thou cannot save them until thou save thyself._

The voice paused, waiting for Dice to respond. However, the fallen warrior did not bother to. Nothing mattered anymore.

_Thy spirit be crushed._ _Thou do not yet see_.

_How much further do I have to go? _

…_Until thou know and accept thy purpose._

_And how much longer until I finally know?_

The figure paused, almost in a state of pity. Dice, however, did not notice and continued thinking out loud.

_'Cause I am looking…_

Tears poured out her fatigued pupils.

_And I just can't see…_

_Thou art right. Thou have seen enough torment. Thou questions shall be answered. I be the spirit of the master emerald. Though I be tainted with evil, a portion of me remains pure. Thou see me, pure. Thou art not my servant. Thy chaos emeralds be my servants, not thou! _

_Then, what I did… all those people I killed was…was my fault?_

_Please, thou wait. The sword thou carry be not the chaos blade. It be not the key. It be a tool, thy tool. Thou be the key. Thou be the chaos blade. _

Dice looked up, deep into the figure, without nudging her head. What did she mean?

_The servers art thy seven chaos emeralds. Thy chaos of power, enriched and powered by the heart… thy heart. Thou contain the heart, the source of power. I be the controller, unifying thy chaos. I be thy heart. I be a part of thou. Robotnik tainted me, thy heart, making thou evil. He tricketh thou into murdering and destroying. Thou thoughteth it was right, for thou be confused. Now, Robotnik has stoleth our power. Thy power. Thy chaos. Thy heart. Thou must get it back. Thou must restore thy chaos, thy emeralds, and the balance of thy order. If not, thy friends shall die. Thou cannot save them if thou cannot save thy heart and self. Save me, thy heart. _

At last, the silhouette revealed itself. A black and white being stepped out of the blue outline.

It was Dice, as a child. Her eyes were huge with sparkling cobalt blue. A weak smile reached the corners of her face. She wore a dress identical to Tikal's. In her arm, the spirit clutched Sonic and Shadow stuffed animals. Both were tattered, but heart warming. The spirit placed the Sonic plushie up against Dice's nose.

_It not be thy fault for those deaths. Thou been tricked. Lying in darkness and bathing in guilt saves nothing. Thou seeketh thy freedom? It be granted. Though know this, thou have never been my slave, thou have only followed thy heart. This time, follow thy good conscious. Waver between good and evil no longer._

Tears streamed onto her muzzle, as Dice gazed into the Sonic-plushie's fake eyes.

_Thy only way to save thy heart, thyself, and thy friends be to either purify me or to destroy me. But, be warned, if thou destroy me, thou shall be destroyed as well. Thou, now, understand?_

_You... are my conscience and the one who created me?_

_Aye._

_I cannot die… unless you die?_

_Aye._

_I understand. I will not fail you… or anyone else._

_Let my words no longer torment thou.

* * *

**  
**_

**A/N:** Sorry for the weird… "thou"s and "thy"s and stuff. Had to be done.


	23. Calm of Battle

**A/N:** So close to the end; haha, I can almost taste it...

* * *

Chapter 23: Calm of Battle

"No way…" Tails gasped under his breath, "What did you guys do to this place? It's trashed!"

"Well, you know how I love parties," smiled Sonic, as he walked forward. The base appeared exactly how Shadow, Knuckles, and he left it: rubble, smoke, pipes, and sparks flying everywhere. All that was missing was a few fires here and there. Grinning, Sonic sardonically added, "Looks even better than before."

"Hah, you keep telling yourself that," the fox grimaced. Kicking a broken chunk of cement, Tails watched it ricochet across the ground.

"Silence!" Shadow hissed as quietly as his temper allowed. He pushed the orange warrior on the shoulder, glaring at him with annoyance. "Eggman is somewhere around here; we can't give away our location. Don't you know anything about espionage at ALL?"

"Wanna make somethin' of it?" The fox scowled, clutching Shadow's shoulder and threatening to punch his jaw. Shaking his head, Shadow merely laughed amusingly.

"Guys…" Amy whispered, "Stop it. Shadow's right. We can't afford to make a mistake now." Frowning, the fox released his grip and continued walking to catch up to Sonic. Amy merely gazed at Tails and suddenly raised her eyebrows in confusion, "Hey… where's Knuckles?"

"Went to check ahead or something," the dark hedgehog shrugged, not particularly caring.

"Do you think it's smart to separate our group?"

"Knuckles can take care of himself. Don't worry about it."

"I dunno…

* * *

"So Sonic…" Tails broke the silence, as nonchalantly as possible.

"Hm?"

"Do you even have a plan?"

"Well…do I ever?" The two of them burst into laughter, not that the joke was hilarious or anything. A smile crawled onto Sonic's face upon seeing his brother relax for the first time since he had met the fox in this world. "I always left that up to you."

"Things change, I guess." He sighed, gazing at the ground ahead of him. Knowing how awkward the blue hedgehog must have felt at that point in time, Tails lied, "No big deal."

"Guys!"

The hedgehog and fox quickly looked up to find Knuckles running towards them. His hands were stained with blood. "Oh man, what's wrong?"

Panting, the echidna waited to regain his breath. Upon seeing his arrival, Shadow and Amy quickly caught up. Now huddled in a circle in front of him, the warriors waited for Knuckles to speak.

"Dice… she's injured, badly. Eggman must have got to her first."

"How badly?" Shadow interrupted. The panic was rising in his throat. He could not break his promise, not now.

"Mortally. She can't possible survive this one. When I found her, she was still breathing but barely. Come on, follow me."

"Whoa, wait a second." Tails grabbed the echidna before Knuckles could leave the scene. "She's our enemy. Besides, Eggman could be anywhere. What happened to the whole 'we can't afford another mistake' shtick? It's got to be a trap or something."

"Or maybe she just needs our help?" Amy added, slightly disappointed at Tails' remark.

"Or both."

All five of them suddenly paused, gazing around. "Who said that?"

"Who do you think?" growled the voice. "Why Sonic… I never realized you were such a coward. Hiding for… how many years was it? Over fifteen?"

Clenching his fist and gritting his teeth, Sonic frantically searched around him. The evil and potentially insane scientist was nowhere to be found. "Show yourself!"

Laughter rose amidst the wreckage, echoing loudly. So loudly that the earth beneath them began to shake. Sonic stepped backwards to find himself losing his balance. The ground began to crack and snap like glass, and the warriors were barely able to stand.

"Kn-Knuckles!" Sonic called out, clutching a sheet of metal, which once was the foundation of Robotnik's base. "Lead Amy and Shadow to Dice. You need to get her out of this, and once you do… you and Shadow get back here. Amy, you guard her and don't leave that spot. Tails and I will stall and find Eggman. Got it?"

"Hey, why do I have to stay on the sidelines? I ca—" Amy stopped in mid-sentence as Sonic stared at her, sending a 'not now' message. "R-right," she stuttered, grabbing Knuckles' hand.

The echidna certainly had more balance than she did. "Shadow, come on," Knuckles added over his shoulder as he used his spiked fists to climb up a vertical piece of wreckage. Once at the peak, he made certain Amy was holding on tight and then viciously let go, gliding over the earthquake. Shadow, with his speed, was immediately below them, leaping across the cracks and precipices.

* * *

Sonic smiled upon seeing the three of them safely leave the disaster zone. Sprinting in a wide circle to ensure he did not fall into fissures that might unexpectedly appear beneath his feet, the hedgehog still could not find his arch-enemy.

"Eggman, show yourself!" He yelled deafeningly, in order to be heard over his enemy's hysteric laughter.

"Like you failed to do for so long? Who knew that one gun blast would make you such a coward? Oh, Sonic, the hero, the savior. Well look at you now. Pathetic."

"Oh ho! You want to talk pathetic? Let's see… tricking a little girl to do your dirty work and then testing on her with chemicals so that she'd be a perfect slave? Now that's just sick."

"You don't know the half of it," came his voice even louder and shriller than before. The cracked earth began to split by drastic proportions, and Sonic was barely able to escape it.

"Aah!" The blue hedgehog turned his head fast enough to see Tails lose his grip and fall into the darkness. Heart pounding, he leaped across the ever-moving earth to the fox's previous location only to watch his friend plummet farther. Without a second thought, the hero dove after him.

"Grab my hand…" He yelled, looking deep at the fear in Tails' eyes. The fox nodded, extending his arm as far as he could. Sonic followed suit, grazing his friend's fingers. Grimacing, he waved his hand again, this time gripping the fox's wrist for dear life. Despite his shallow breaths, the hedgehog turned to face the precipice and ferociously ran up it. Inching upwards at dreadfully slow pace, Sonic suddenly grew pale, thinking they might not escape the abyss.

However, his stubborn personality would not give in to such doubts, and he began to run harder and faster, dust shooting everywhere. Holding their breath, the two of them at last approached Tails' gun, which was currently jammed into a vertical piece of rock. Snatching it, Sonic looked down to see his friend exhaling erratically.

"Th-thanks," he panted. The hedgehog smiled in return, but their relief was short-lived. Clapping could be heard in the background…

"Well done hedgehog. Let's see how you fair off against this," laughed the voice, as a blue tentacle appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around Sonic's body. It snatched him from the gun he was holding onto, and before Sonic knew it, he was hovering over bottomless hole. Gasping for air, he turned his head far enough to see that Tails was safe, now trying to remove his gun from the precipice.

The hedgehog suddenly yelped in agony as the tentacle slowly crushed him. "This seems familiar, doesn't it? You want me to show myself? Well, here I am!"

Sonic opened one eye, only able to see the color red, and gasped at the sight of the once-human scientist. He... it rather, was enormous, nearly ten stories high. Other than his face, Eggman appeared to be a spitting image of Chaos: the tentacles, the transparent blue skin, and most importantly, the chaos emeralds were inside of him, glowing maliciously.

In a whisper from his lack of air, Sonic gasped, "You didn't…"

* * *

After quick gliding, Knuckles was able to find the fallen warrior again. Landing next to her, the echidna eased Amy off his shoulders and then knelt down to Dice's level. Slowly releasing a breath, he broke the silence, "She's still breathing."

Amy's face was overwhelmingly concerned, as she gazed at Dice from head to toe. The warrior lay on her stomach in a pool of blood. All that the pink hedgehog managed to do was gasp and cover her mouth. Taking several breaths to calm herself, Amy sat beside Knuckles.

"What should we do?"

Shadow, moments later, appeared at the scene but stopped dead in his tracks. "No…"

The echidna acknowledged Shadow's existence by nodding, but then quickly returned his attention to Dice. "First, we're going to need fabric or something to wrap her woun—"

"Got it," smiled Amy, as she ripped her pants' leg with happiness. "I was kind of tired of dressing in drag anyway."

Not understanding the joke, Shadow walked to the other side of Dice, frowning. Meanwhile, Knuckles gave off a suppressed chuckle and then placed the fabric on top of Dice's shoulder. "Shadow, I'm going to need you to apply pressure to her shoulder. I'm gonna try and wrap it, but I think we may need to turn her over. That's really risky though, her body might go into shock."

"Do whatever it takes," the dark hedgehog rudely snapped, never removing his eyes from the warrior. Quickly, Shadow pressed both his hands on top of her wound as hard as possible. "This good enough?"

"I think. I've… never done this before." Both Amy and Shadow glared at the echidna with exasperation. "What? Like you know better?" They turned away as Knuckles smiled. As quickly as possible, he tied the fabric around her shoulder. Inhaling nervously, he then gently turned her over.

Seeing how nervous Knuckles appeared, Shadow helped him place Dice on her back. The warrior lay unconscious, her face dirty with blood. "Can't believe she's still breathing."

"Wait, we're not done yet. Apply more pressure on her wound. I need to wrap it more. The blood is seeping through it."

"Right." And so, the procedure continued. Amy ripped more pieces of her pants, handed it to Knuckles, and he in turn wrapped the bandage around her bleeding shoulder. Shadow, meanwhile, applied as much pressure as he could, hoping the flow of blood would cease. All three of them, however, doubted she would recover. After so many years of war, none gave in to foolish optimism.

"What should we do now?"

"Wait, I guess," Knuckles shrugged. "Maybe water would help? Oh, and Sonic said he wanted us to come back and help him," added the echidna, suddenly nervous.

"Knuckles, you go and help him. Amy, you get the water, and I'll stay here."

"You sure?" Amy asked, "I dunno if that's such a good idea…"

"There's no time. Just go," Knuckles answered, as he began to leave, heading back to the battleground. "Once Amy's back though, you should help too Shadow."

"Right."


	24. Stand Alone

**A/N: **I just heard that Sega is going to come out with this new Shadow the Hedgehog game soon. Isn't that awesome? But… equipping him with a gun? That's slightly, um, odd.

Also, thanks Shadow Stalkr for the criticism, thanks Kalligrapha for standing up for me, and thanks Mystic Mage for the "my life won't be complete unless you finish this story" thing. Feedback is appreciated as always, and apologies for any future errors.

This is the last chapter everyone. I hope it does the story justice, but we'll see. If I'm really upset with it later down the road, I'll probably re-write this chapter. Hehe…but yes, the finale!

* * *

Chapter 24: Stand Alone

Sonic could not trust his eyes. Robotnik's appearance refused to escape the hedgehog's mind. The tentacles, the eerie blue skin, and the sheer size of his old enemy were baffling. Even despite his eyes failing him, Sonic could see deep into the evil scientist's chest.

The master emerald.

It was embedded inside of him, glowing maliciously. The chaos emeralds floated beside it, but none compared to the gem itself. The master emerald no longer shone green, but now was smothered in dark goo. Squinting, Sonic gazed deep into the darkness, making the hedgehog shudder with anxiety.

"Wh-what did you do?" He coughed out, barely able to speak. The tentacle wrapped around his body ever tighter, and the chance of his escape was slim.

The creature that once called himself Robotnik pulled the hedgehog closer to him, as he laughed amusingly.

"Simple. I gained power. Enough to recreate the universe! Just _look_ at what I can do…" With his other arm, the scientist snatched a handful of rock and slate from the cracked earth beneath them. Raising the devastated heap of rubble to Sonic's eye level, Robotnik smiled. An array of black flowers slithered from it and blossomed rapidly. It spread and crawled through his fingers like a virus.

"Imagine that, but everywhere. A utopia, and all in my name!"

"But how--?"

"How did I gain such power? Why do I look like this? For someone who reappears after so long, you disappoint me; I expected a better resistance. And to think you used to be my rival. Your strength pales in comparison to my own."

Sensing the annoyance emanating from Sonic's countenance, Robotnik grinned. His power was unparalleled, and nothing could possibly stop him now. "But if you must know before I finish you off…"

* * *

Shadow gazed helplessly at the fallen warrior. She had not stirred an inch, and the dark hedgehog was losing hope that she might ever regain consciousness, let alone heal. Sighing, he pulled his legs up to his chest, resting his chin softly.

Turning his eyes towards the battle, Shadow suddenly doubted Sonic would succeed. It was not his deep sarcasm or past hatred towards the hedgehog, but a sense of weakness that slowly took hold of him. Dice was dying, this world was devastated (as well as the rest of the universe), and more importantly, even if they were successful, at this point, what would defeating Robotnik solve?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Everyone would still be dead, Station Square would remain in disrepair and utter devastation, and to put it simple, Shadow failed to see any purpose for Sonic, with his lack of vengeance, to fight.

"Shadow?" Amy asked, interrupting his train of thought. She held a wet piece of fabric in her hand and quickly sat beside the dark hedgehog. Silent, she twisted the rag, allowing water to drip gently on Dice's visage, and then placed it on top of her forehead. "I could only find a leaking water pipe. That's all I could get."

"Mm," he replied, his eyes refusing to move. "It's fine."

* * *

"I heard rumor of a chaos blade and its ultimate power of destruction all those years ago. From the little piece of gossip I had received, when all seven emeralds were gathered with the master emerald and the right incantation was said, the user could have any wish granted and that a 'chaos key' could fuse with the emeralds to rip through time and space. That is what you learned, was it not?

"However, the master emerald was missing a shard, and I could not make my wish. Not to mention, the chaos blade was not the key the legend spoke of, but the warrior who wielded it. Only she possessed such power, and I realized this after kidnapping her from you, Knuckles, and Tails." He paused, mocking Sonic's disgust with a sly grin.

"Oh but you'll like what comes next, hero. She was far too 'good' to conquer the countless worlds I wanted in my grasp, so I spent years figuring out a way to harness the power myself. All my research led back to the master emerald. It was the source of her power and her good conscious."

"…So you tainted the emerald," Sonic added, understanding Dice's situation better.

"A smart one, eh? The technology I used on the emerald and her made her the perfect warrior. On that day, I sent her to destroy Station Square and the last of Knuckles' pathetic rebellion. It worked flawlessly, but I found myself disappointed. It was her who had the power, not I. See, I originally wanted the chaos blade for myself, not some sappy child with a connection to the master emerald."

Robotnik stopped, looking below him to see Tails aiming his gun directly towards him. Laughing, the scientist merely stared waiting for the fox to attack. Refusing to give in to his enemy's frightening glance, he pulled the trigger. Lasers shot from the gun but to Tails' dismay flew through Robotnik's skin. Continuing his cackle with amusement, Robotnik snatched Tails with the same arm, which now held Sonic.

"And so…" he grinned, enraptured in his tale of immortality. "My research continued. I left her here to rot, while I took the emeralds with me. And after over a year, it paid off. I created a serum that twisted me into what you see before you. My structure is now the same as chaos himself, and I am capable of harnessing the darkness within the master emerald. But more importantly, now that Dice is gone and I have the chaos blade, nothing can stop me! I have the ability to recreate the universe!"

"You're more of a megalomaniac than I realized," spat Sonic.

* * *

Twitching her eyes open, Dice found her ability to see was weak if existent at all. All she could perceive was red. The pain in her shoulder was incredible, edging through her body. Sharp as a knife, it was, and Dice lay helpless, only able to groan feebly.

"Dice! She's awake, Amy," gasped a relieved voice.

"…Sh-shadow?"

"Yeah? Don't move."

"B-but Eggman…he's—"

"Here. We know, relax." She suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder and wondered why he was not fighting their enemy. Mentally shaking her head, Dice remembered her vision.

"Listen," she began, using all her strength to speak clearly, "I know how to stop him. He's using the master emerald…" She paused, gasping for breath. "And I can subdue him so that you and Sonic attack while being super charged with the chaos emeralds."

"But we don't have the emeralds… and how can you possibly do anything in your condition?"

Instead of responding, the warrior raised her hand, now glowing green. Piercing her skin, a chaos emerald slowly escaped Dice's palm. A slight murmur of pain escaped her lips, but she remained calm.

"How did you…" Amy covered her mouth, grimacing at the thought of an alien object seeping out of her own skin.

"Reversed chaos control," she exhaled, speaking slowly. "Eggman has all seven, but I can teleport them here."

* * *

"Hah, and now I can finish you off once and for all, hedgehog. Oh how I've waited for this moment…" He smiled, crushing both Sonic and Tails, listening to their anguished cries.

"Sonic!" yelled Knuckles from behind, gliding and then landing in front of Robotnik to blind him. Holding up Tails' gun, he shrieked, "Block this!" The laser hit his eye directly, and Robotnik cocked his head back in pain. Jumping backwards, the echidna fell down to the scientist's arm. Without thinking, Knuckles began to pummel the blue tentacle with his new-found gun.

Robotnik's grip on Sonic and Tails was waning, and Knuckles quickly pulled his friends out from their enemy's clutches. "Did you have to bang up my gun!" called out Tails with extreme annoyance. "…And why didn't it work when I shot at him?"

"Because… I aimed at his eye and not his liquid skin?"

Recovering from the pain in his eyes, Robotnik glared down at the three of them. "Have you forgotten that you're still standing on my arm? Haha. Fools."

"Or maybe you've forgotten what a super-hedgehog looks like," snarled Shadow, holding Dice in his arms. While they were chatting, Sonic and the other two already made their way to Shadow.

Whispering so that Robotnik could not hear, Shadow explained his plan, "Knuckles, that bracelet you made for Rouge…with the shard of the master emerald… you need reconnect it with the rest of the master emerald while Sonic and I stall for time."

The echidna gave a look of disgust, "You mean… I gotta go _inside_ of Robotnik?"

"Ew," smiled Tails. The echidna merely glared back and grimaced.

"Whatever, can you teleport me in there?"

"I c-can," Dice whimpered. The others gazed at her in surprise, as Shadow handed the warrior to Amy and then passed the chaos emeralds to Sonic.

"Let's finish this."

"Right," replied Sonic, closing his eyes. The chaos emeralds shimmered around the blue hedgehog, spinning faster and faster. Light flowed out Sonic's eyes and mouth as his skin began to glow as bright as the sun. Even after transforming dozens of times, the hedgehog never failed to be amused by the light and power thriving inside him.

At last opening his eyes, he nodded towards Shadow, and both of them flew to face Robotnik once and for all. His voice: now lower than before, Shadow said, "We need to confuse him till Knuckles does his job."

* * *

Laying her gently on the ground, the echidna bit his lip nervously. She probably would not survive. Blood caked her body, staining her white fur. Even the black skin was tainted crimson. It spilled onto the ground, on Knuckles' hands, everywhere.

"Just teleport me and get this over with." Opening her eyes, she placed her hand on Knuckles' chest. In obvious pain, Dice whispered inaudibly under her breath, and before the echidna realized it, he was inside.

His lungs burned from lack of air, but Knuckles refused to let darkness cloud his sight or his mission. Luckily, the echidna floated directly above the emerald, which he had once protected with his life. Now touching the source of all this pain, he felt sick from its dark powers. Without another thought, he took out his single green shard, searching for a recess in the emerald.

His fatigue was growing and the echidna was in too much pain to wonder why Robotnik had not noticed him yet. However, he took too long and closed his eyes, slipping out of consciousness. Suddenly, a figure appeared in his mind's eye, telling him to continue, to fight.

"Rouge…" he murmured, bubbles shooting from his mouth. Rummaging around the master emerald, he felt a crack in the emerald and knowing Rouge guided him to it, happily reconnected the shard to the master emerald.

* * *

Zipping past and around Robotnik, the two hedgehogs were successfully able to be the center of his attention. Smiling, Shadow could see a sudden change in his appearance. However, his smile was short-lived as he heard a loud scream. Following it was Robotnik's agony, as he shrieked louder.

Sonic meanwhile looked towards the master emerald to see Knuckles floating unconsciously. In surprise and awakened fear, he flew through Robotnik's liquid chest and rescued the echidna from his airless incarceration. Coughing, the echidna opened his eyes and choked out, "Always at the last minute, aren't you?"

"Makes things more exciting, I guess."

"Sonic, I think it's working," Shadow interrupted approaching the two of them.

"What do you mean?"

* * *

Amy and Tails stood beside Dice, watching the battle until she suddenly began to shake and yell. The pink hedgehog covered her mouth not certain of a proper course of action.

"Just leave her already."

Scowling, Amy glared deep into his eyes, "Why don't you? Either let it go or leave." Turning back around, she nervously looked at Dice, now clutching her head and screaming. The pain in her head and chest blinded the sting of her shoulder.

Tails, mouth agape, was speechless and motionless.

* * *

"By connecting the dark and light halves of the master emerald, Dice is trying to defeat the evil within her…"

"But since Robotnik is connected also, by destroying the darkness, she'll destroy Robotnik?"

"Well, I wouldn't say destroy. That's our job. She's just weakening him," Shadow replied, the chaos emeralds floating around them. "And… the only way to destroy Eggman is to destroy his heart. The master emerald."

"But won't that kill Dice?" Knuckles asked, still recovering from his underwater experience.

"We're," Shadow paused, "going to have to take that risk." Sonic looked at the dark hedgehog in surprise, despite knowing that wasting their time discussing their course of action might prove fatal. Earlier, he appeared to show feelings for her, but now Sonic was not entirely sure on his prediction. The hero, honestly, was disappointed at his ally.

"Well, let's do it already," Sonic sighed, regretfully. "Knuckles, you can glide to the ground." The hedgehog let go of the echidna and flew with Shadow (and the chaos emeralds) in front of Robotnik, who was still panting and shaking. Glowing bright, the hedgehogs extended their arms forward, the chaos emeralds: swirling around them. Each emerald with its unique color sparkled around them as a single ball of light began to collect in front of Shadow and Sonic.

"Chaos control!" they yelled in unison, as a beam of energy with the diameter of a tree trunk, pierced Robotnik's chest and shot the master emerald out from him. Without its power, he quickly shrank to his normal size, still thriving in agony on the ground. Lowering to the ground, Shadow could see the master emerald shine a mixture of black and green, the darkness threatening to consume it.

"She's losing…"

"Not yet. Have some faith in her," Sonic replied, grabbing Robotnik by the collar and returning to his normal blue hide. "You sick cretin. You've lost." The fire in his eyes was fierce, though not making through to his enemy. The scientist was not responding, lost in trance.

Amy, Tails, and Knuckles with Dice in his arms, ran up to the two hedgehogs. Though her red and blue eyes were open, they were glazed over with emptiness. "What are we going to do?"

"I-I dunno. He's not powerful beyond all reason anymore," Knuckles responded.

"But what if Dice loses?" Amy questioned earnestly.

"We can't take that chance," Tails cried out. "Destroy the master emerald; it's the only way now. It'll kill them both."

"But… what will that do? Everything is going to remain the same. We need to plan this carefully."

"I'm through with all your plans, Knuckles!"

"Aaah, Shadow!" Dice howled in pain. "M-my chaos bl-blade… where is… it! G-gotta send Ssssonic back…" Looking around, Shadow failed to find the legendary sword until his eyes came across Robotnik. There it was, strapped to his back. Swiftly, he snatched the blade and handed it to the blind warrior.

"Woah, I'm not leaving yet," Sonic retorted, releasing his enemy.

"Why didn't you do send him back in the FIRST place!" Tails shrieked.

"Need all th-the emeralds…" She twitched, weaker than before. "When… h-he's back, dessstroy the massshter e-emerald once and for a-all."

"But you'll die! And if I go back… these versions of you, all of you, will be gone forever." There was a long moment of silence between them.

"Nothing would make me happier," each and every one of them responded as one voice.

"I can't leave now, damn it! If I do, Shadow is going to stay in another dimension… and, and… Robotnik isn't defeated yet."

"I… I would rather be stuck there for an eternity then have to watch my comrades die," Shadow replied sternly. "If you go back, then this will never happen. Besides, Robotnik is already defeated."

The blue hedgehog was speechless and suddenly caught off guard as Amy hugged him. "Thank you for coming back, but they're right. We need you to fix this."

A smile appeared on her cracked lips as Dice gripped the handle of her sword. It began to glow bright blue as the other emeralds swirled around her. Lifting her arm, she cut through the air, ripping through time and space. Before Sonic could argue further he was pulled into it.

"Thanks," she coughed out, as the others merely smiled at him.

* * *

"WAIT A SECOND, I CAN'T LEAVE!" He screamed, extending his arm to them. The hedgehog gasped to see that his friends with all their scars were nowhere to be found. He was standing alone.

Panting nervously, Sonic looked up. The sky, it was blue, and birds were chirping. It almost appeared as though he had never left, let alone traveled to the future. He sighed, feeling like a failure. What he hated more than lack of adventure was leaving a problem unsolved.

Dice was dying, the world lay in ruins, Robotnik still had the potential of regaining his power, and they sent him back. How could they do that to him? It seemed rather anticlimactic, but perhaps it was the only way. If Sonic had defeated Robotnik right there, Dice would have died anyway and the hero would not have any means of returning to his time.

"Of all the ridiculous…"

"S-Sonic?"

"You bastard! You bastard! Sonic is gone!"

The hedgehog turned in surprise to see Knuckles clutching Robotnik by the throat as his gun clattered on the floor and to see Tails on the floor, feeble and young. He truly had returned, and fully understanding the consequences of his actions on the future, the hedgehog stepped in.

"I'm right here. Let him go, Knuckles. He's pathetic, and Tails is more important," he grinned, grabbing the chaos blade, the four emeralds, and baby Dice, right where he left them. He had to make sure that Tails was treated before his situation became critical and to take Dice and the chaos emeralds before Robotnik got hold of them.

"We have other plans. Like… getting Shadow back to this world." As an after thought he added under his breath, "And protecting Dice from the likes of him."

"Sonic? How did you…?"

"It's an overly long story, but Tails needs our help," he replied, gripping the echidna's arm and sprinting to the nearest hospital. Despite the deep regret raging within him, Sonic sensed that this was the proper path. His actions would ensure that the situation he ran away from would be avoided.

"There are just more important things to worry about."


End file.
